Forever Wandering
by LoveThatFandom
Summary: "And then she was being yanked back by her black hair, the growling of an eater whispering in her ear, beckoning her to a feast - a feast of her own flesh. Riley let out a strangled cry as she struggled to escape the grip of the eater. The other eaters were moving in on her when they realized she was trapped." Eventual Carl/Oc.
1. Collide

**Chapter 1: Collide**

In those first three seconds, you learn something about yourself.

_One._ You learn that you are not as tough as you make yourself out to be. You are weak.

_Two._ You learn that the people you don't care for actually mean something to you.

_Three._ You learn that you don't want these people gone; you don't want to be alone.

And then you're either lucky, or you're not. If you're lucky, you get to live to see another day. You get to escape the rotting bodies that want nothing more than to tear into your flesh. If you're not, you get overwhelmed by the dead and then it's over.

I'm one of the lucky ones.

I am Riley and this is my story.

* * *

Everything was too quiet. No chirping of the birds. No buzzing of the insects. _Nothing._ The only sound that could be heard was the soft slapping of black boots on the road. The sound was so quiet it was barely noticeable, but it was still there interrupting the complete silence. The young girl - Riley - that the boots were attached to was alone with a backpack slung over her shoulder, a knife attached to her belt, and gun stuffed into her dark jeans. She walked in a straight line, not wavering for any reason. When her head wasn't faced straight ahead, it was bobbing down to look at her feet as she walked. Her posture was stiff, giving indication she had been walking for a long time, and the sweat glistening on her skin was another visible sign of this.

The girl had no clear destination except straight ahead along the road. Wherever the road would take her, that was where she wanted to be. As long as that place had water. That was her only condition. She had been travelling alone for two weeks now and her water had run out yesterday morning. She still had some food left in her backpack and she had enough ammo to last her another day or two, so finding water was her top priority. And if she found a river, she wouldn't mind washing off a bit. Her ebony hair had been soaked with sweat, dirt, and blood for the past few days. Even a wash with no soap would be nice.

However, nowadays things that were "nice" didn't matter. It was all about survival. Food, water, guns...those were the three basic things needed for survival. Everything else was just a luxury. As unfortunate as it was, that was just the way it worked. The only time anyone could ever afford a luxury was if they had a place to stay. Obviously Riley didn't.

Her light blue eyes caught sight of a building up ahead and her pace quickened. The closer she got, the more the trees around the road thinned out and soon the one building became three. Before she got too close, she crouched down next to a tree and silently scanned the area for signs of eaters. The buildings seemed to be a collection of office-type buildings, only the difference was that they weren't clean and pristine. The dirt and grime was mostly from wear and abandonment, but she also spotted some blood splatters on the side of the middle building.

Something moving caught her attention and her gaze shifted to the third building. Two eaters were wandering slowly around the door. If those were all that were here, she could take them down easily, but she would search the first two buildings before she attempted to do any killing. If she could avoid them, she would. It was better not to waste time and energy when it wasn't needed. She couldn't afford to overexert herself.

If she was quick, she could probably make it to the first building without the eaters noticing. So without waiting any longer, she peeled out from behind the tree and quietly trotted over to building number one. The wooden door was slightly ajar, which was an instant red flag. Eaters or other survivors could be inside.

Riley pulled her knife from her belt and opened it up while pressing herself against the side of the house next to the door. She took a peek through the crack of the door, but didn't see anything of concern inside. All she could see were rows of cubicles and a few doors that must have led to bathrooms or a kitchen area. No eaters. As quietly as she could, she opened the door further, slipped inside, and then closed the door behind herself. Papers, books, staplers and the like were scattered everywhere. Some computers were even broken. If she was going to find any resources here, it probably wouldn't be much.

Since the main room was clear, she headed straight to one of the doors at the back and peered in through the small window. It was a kitchenette. Her hands fumbled quickly for the doorknob and she went right inside and began searching through drawer after drawer. When the cabinets and drawers yielded no water, she reached over to turn the sink faucet on. She would have been pretty damn lucky if the water was still working.

"Doesn't seem like I'm getting anything useful from here," she muttered to herself, aiming a frustrated kick at one of the open cabinets.

Her fists clenched and she glared down at the ground, her dark eyebrows knitting together as frustration and desperation clawed its way through her body. She was so thirsty and the dehydration was clouding her mind. She just _needed_ to find some sort of water source... All the water that could be retained in her body was oozing through her pores from the intense heat.

_Would drinking my own sweat be an option?_ Riley didn't exactly know where that thought had come from, but if she had no other option, it might not be the worst idea. She surely had enough sweat. Running her hands over her face, she let out a sigh and then reached for the doorknob. Her body instantly froze when an all too familiar sound reached her ears.

_Gunshots._

And then she was darting over to the closest window searching frantically for any human beings. The third building where the two eaters had been before was now completely overrun. A dozen or so were pouring out of the building like a pool without a wall and they were all headed toward a small group of very alive people. She counted three and one of them appeared to be around her own age. The older man, that couldn't be a day over 30, was trying to shield the younger boy from the reaches of the eaters as he shot the closest ones down. He was wearing jeans and brown flannel shirt that was splattered with blood from the close kills he was making. His dark brown and wavy hair wasn't helping him much, as it was all in his face as he shot the eaters down.

The woman that was nearby was swinging around a long, bloodied sword. Her body moved quickly as she spun and killed off the eaters with simple slices with her sword and her long dreadlocks moved in motion with her.

The boy, with a sheriff's hat atop his brown mess of hair, was trying to help, shooting the eaters every chance he got, but the man was blocking him most of the time. Just by the protective stance of the bearded man, she could see that he cared very much about the boy. Maybe they were father and son?  
These people were strangers to her. She didn't need to help them. They could turn on her after she had helped. But seeing the boy that was around her age made her think differently. Hunters didn't keep children around. She had been a victim of that. It was why she was alone now. So instead of wasting time wrestling with the decision in her head, she went with her gut feeling and darted outside to help.

As soon as the humid air hit her face again, she pulled her gun from the waistband of her jeans and clicked the safety off. One of the eaters was reaching for the boy. Aim. Breathe. Fire. The eater dropped like a fly and the boy's head snapped back to see where the bullet had come from. Blue connected with blue. She quickly moved forward, shoving the boy aside as an eater attempted to grab him while he was looking at her. She heard him fall to the ground behind her, but she didn't look back, aiming at the next eater and shooting it down.

Unfortunately, her next few shots weren't as lucky. Her head suddenly started to spin and the bullets she had been aiming at the eater's heads instead lowered to their shoulders and chests. It was the absolute worst time for her dehydration to rear its ugly head because the eaters were getting too close. She was just about to drop her gun and take out her knife when the boy came up beside her and shot the close ones down.

Riley felt an uncomfortable heat gush from her neck to her cheeks. She could have taken those eaters down just fine on her own! She didn't need help from a stranger! Gnashing her teeth, she aimed at the single eater that was left and brought it down with a bullet to the skull. Then, she brought a hand up to her head and rubbed the side of her face, blinking away the dizziness. The man and woman were now turning to her and she took a step back. Her hand was gripped firmly on her gun in case they decided to try anything. The man looked over her carefully. She was expecting him to say something first, as he seemed to be the one in charge, but it was the sheriff boy who spoke first. His voice was deeper than she imagined, but it was also cracking slightly thanks to puberty.

"Thanks for knocking me over. I could have handled everything fine." The sarcasm dripping from his words was quite evident.

Riley scoffed. Was he for real? "I saved your ass! How about a 'thank you'? I could have just left you all to the eaters. I didn't have to stop by for a cup of tea."

The man put a hand on the boy's chest, gently pushing him backwards as the boy opened his mouth to protest.

"Don't mind him. We've been through a lot today. Didn't get too much sleep. Name's Rick Grimes. That's Michonne," he pointed to the woman, "and smart alec over here is my son, Carl."

Riley shot a glare at Carl before looking up to the man named Rick. He seemed awfully nice for a survivor. "Riley."

"Are you alone?" Michonne questioned.

"Does it look like I have anyone tagging along? Wait, I think I've got someone in my backpack," she quipped, taking another step back and rolling her eyes.

"No group? You're pretty young to be wanderin' on your own. Can't be older than Carl," Rick commented, raising his eyebrows and tilting his head.

"Fifteen is old enough in my books."

"Carl's fifteen," Michonne piped up.

"Your opinions and my opinions are different," Riley muttered, trying to avoid the topic. Couldn't they see that she didn't want to be badgered with questions about her being alone? It was like they'd never seen a lone person before. "Look, I helped you and now that the eaters are dead I can't stick around."

"We can't just leave you alone," Rick said.

"Why not?" Carl muttered, his gaze hard and his tone moody.

Rick ignored Carl. "This world isn't a place for children anymore. You may be tough and you may be stubborn, but you're still young and hot headed. And the fact that you put your neck on the line to help us proves that you're not like everyone else. I can't just leave you behind knowing all that. That would be on _my_ conscience."

Riley stared at him, her eyebrows furrowing together. After everything that happened with her group before, she had some serious trust issues, but Rick was being so persistent. Would it be a bad idea to tag along? It was so strange that complete strangers could still be nice after everything that had happened. If she went with this group, she couldn't form a bond. She couldn't get _attached_. Just like her last two groups, she was sure this one would come crumbling down. She had to be prepared to go out alone. She had to be prepared to let go.

Could she even do that? She didn't have to stick around, but Rick made it seem like they were going to follow her around no matter what. Maybe this was a chance to start over. She didn't have to like these people. And the fact that they would hang around would mean that she wouldn't have to go looking for food and water by herself.

"Fine. You can tag along. But I'm not going to lag around playing sheriff's deputy." She shot a pointed look over at Carl. "You treat me like an adult and we'll be good."

Michonne's lips curled up in an amused smirk and Rick nodded, holding out his hand for her to shake. Riley stared down at his hand for a moment before shaking it.

"We got ourselves a deal," he said.

"Dad," Carl started, his tone like the bristles of a porcupine, "you can't be serious. We don't even know her."

Rick pulled Carl aside and she rolled her eyes as he bent down to look his son in the eyes and explain his reasoning. She could already tell that she and Carl were not going to get along very well. Sure, she had knocked him over, but he would have been bit if she hadn't noticed. He probably just didn't want to admit that he had gotten saved by a girl. A typical boy...

"Where are you guys headed?" she asked Michonne, turning her back to Rick and Carl.

"Been seein' signs for a place called Terminus. Following the train tracks and scavenging when we get the chance. We think the rest of our group might be headed there," she answered, her dark brown eyes studying Riley.

"Terminus? Doesn't that sound like the best place in Georgia. Did you guys happen to pass a stream or something?" Riley glanced from Michonne to Rick as the man straightened out and turned back toward her.

"We did this mornin' but it's quite a ways back. Carl's got a jug a water in his bag," Rick informed, glancing over to his son and holding out his hand for the bag around his shoulder.

Carl glanced up to his father as he reluctantly handed him the bag. Rick pulled a medium-sized jug out and handed it to the teen girl. She had to hide her excitement. Swallowing the dry saliva in her mouth, she unscrewed the cap and began to drink. It was like an instant transformation. Her mouth went from feeling like cotton to feeling like a pool and she had to force herself to stop gulping down the lukewarm liquid before she drank too much. It was probably swarming with bacteria and who-knows-what, but it was the best water she had since yesterday morning.

Riley handed the jug back to Rick once she was done and nodded her thanks. At least she didn't have to go looking for water for the rest of the day. One thing less for her to think about.

"It's startin' to get late so we'll need to find a place to camp. I'd say here, but if there are any walkers in the area, they'd come runnin' after we were shootin' up the place. Best we move on," Rick pointed out, putting the jug back into the bag and giving it back to Carl. "Did ya see anything in the buildings we could use?"

Walkers? She had heard plenty of different names for the eaters, but she hadn't heard that one before. Riley shook her head. "Not in building one, at least."

"Why don't we check the other two 'fore we move on? Michonne, you wanna take Carl with you in the second building? I'll take Riley with me in the next."

Michonne smiled a little at Carl and motioned for him to follow after her.

"If ya need anything, just shout out and we'll come runnin'," Rick reminded, patting his son on the shoulder as he went to join Michonne.

Rick and Riley were then left alone and she glanced over the man. His eyes were narrowed and slightly squinted and his face was wrinkled up in thought as he looked at her. It made her feel a little bit uneasy and she questioned her decision to let them hang around. Before she could quickly duck away toward the building in front of them, he moved in front of her, his eyes sharp as he looked at her.

"Before we go in, I just want to ask you a few questions," he said.

Riley remained silent, unsure of what to make of his change in behavior. He studied her for a moment before speaking up again.

"How many walkers have you killed?"

"Too many to count," she muttered, her eyes darting all over his face as she tried to avoid his sharp gaze.

"How many people have you killed?"

Riley took in a sharp breath when she realized what this was. It was a test - a test to see if she would be trustworthy. Even though he was the one who wanted her to go with them, he still had to make sure. She had to take this carefully.

"I haven't had to kill anyone yet." _Lies. Lies. Lies._

She forced her eyes to connect with his in a desperate attempt to show that she wasn't lying. But she _was_ and he could _never know._ Those memories full of pain and misery were ones she tried to block out, but this man was reminding her. He, a man that she barely knew, was bringing her back to her past and it was crashing down around her. She could see the scenery morphing around her. She could see the filthy, rotting bodies of the eaters desperately reaching at her. She could hear the cries of the innocent.

Rick put his hands on his hips. "Just know that you might have to," he said quietly after a moment of silence.

Then, he motioned for her to go ahead and she nodded slowly, turning away from him and taking a deep breath. Riley needed to focus and stay alert now. Slipping the knife from her belt, she opened it up and crept into the dark and dingy office building. It was easy to tell the eaters had been around in the building for a while. Blood was splattered all over the walls and floor. Computers, papers, and chairs were all out of place and splayed all over the floor. She even detected some skin and other undesirables on the corners of tables and stuck to the floor.

Awhile ago, she would have thrown up the contents of her stomach at the sight of the gore and blood, but she was used to it by now. Everyone she had met had seen the worst things possible and it just seemed to be getting worse and worse.

The soft banging on a door caught her and Rick's attention and the man hurried toward the closed door near the back, pressing his ear against the wood. She neared at a slower pace. The sounds behind the door was obviously the growling and snarling of an eater. It would be best for them to avoid it and search the other rooms. But it seemed Rick had different ideas.

"I'm gonna open the door and distract it and I want you to kill it, alright?" he instructed, those intense blue eyes of his jumping to connect with her own.

She quickly jumped on the defensive. "What? It can't get to us behind the door! Why can't we leave it here?"

"There might be supplies in there," was his simple reply.

Riley stared at him for a moment before slowly backing away and raising her knife. Rick reached out and grasped the doorknob, opening it and then beginning to wave his arms to get the attention of the lone eater. It growled and staggered toward him, reaching out to try and grab onto him, but he was too quick. She snuck up behind it, biting her lip as she tried to time everything exactly right. It was pretty tall and she'd have to either jump up to take it out or get it to fall on its knees. Or she could always leave Rick to deal with it.

She was sure that if she left Rick and ran that it might not end well for her, especially if Michonne and Carl were already done poking through their building. So, with fierce determination, she sprang forward, bringing her foot down hard on the back of its leg. It gave a sickening crack and the eater fell to the ground in front of her, giving her enough time to plunge her knife into its rotting skull. It gave one final growl before falling lifeless at her feet.

Rick nodded at her and moved forward to the open doorway. She pulled a rag out of her back pocket and wiped the blood off her knife before following him into the other room, which was another office area. Amidst one of the cluttered desks, she spotted what appeared to be a bag of chips and after moving everything aside, she was able to see it was a small sealed bag of potato chips. Some food was better than no food. There wasn't much else to find, but Rick had found a half-empty first aid kit in the bathroom with band aids and some gauze inside.

"Nothin' else here," he muttered, heading back outside.

Riley stayed behind for a moment just to shove the bag of chips into her backpack, but she soon caught up with him, who had met up with Carl and Michonne just outside the door.

"We should get movin' before the walkers start to show up. Maybe there will be a place not too far from here we can set up camp for the night," Michonne piped up.

"Alright but let's not go too far from the tracks," Rick suggested. "Don't want to loose 'em."

They headed out into the woods in the opposite direction Riley had taken to get to the buildings. Everyone remained quiet for a few moments before Michonne and Carl started to talk quietly to each other. She glanced back behind her at Carl when she swore that she heard her name, but he stopped talking as soon as she had and stared at her with a gaze all too similar to his father's. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest. He was definitely doing a good job of making her feel unwelcome, but she wasn't going to let him know that. Besides, the ruder he was to her, the less she would care about these people and she could not care about these people in any way, shape, or form.

It wasn't too long before they had come across the train tracks that they had been talking about.

"We should head northwest, see if we can find a place there. If not, we'll camp out in the woods," Rick explained.

"Do you even have any idea what this Terminus place is?" Riley asked suddenly.

"No. But it's not like we have anywhere better to look for our group. Wandering around the woods would take forever," Carl muttered.

"I wasn't asking you, wise guy."

She saw Rick give them an amused smile out of the corner of her eye.

"No wonder you were on your own."

Riley rolled her eyes and turned away from Carl, beginning to walk once more. The light was starting to fade and she had a feeling they weren't going to find a place to stay before it got too dark. They were practically in the middle of nowhere with only the train tracks as a landmark. As they wandered through the woods, she realized how quiet it had been, just like before the whole eater herd back at the office buildings. She hoped that it didn't mean anything. It made her feel a bit uncomfortable and she kept an extra eye out as they continued to walk.

It felt like they had been walking for thirty minutes before it was too dark to see. Rick slowed down and looked around carefully before turning back to look at them.

"We can't go much further in this light. We oughta settle down here 'n then we'll head back to the tracks in the mornin' to try 'n cover more ground. Michonne, can you stay on watch while I get a fire goin'?

Michonne replied with a nod and unsheathed her katana. Riley bent down to try and find some sticks and longs they might be able to use for firewood. It didn't do much good, however, because it was so dark she merely ended up fumbling around the area and trying not to bump into trees. In the end, it didn't really matter because Rick had already started a fire up and she abandoned her search to sit in front of the low-burning fire.

"I'll keep watch first. You three get some rest," Michonne said quietly.

Riley didn't think that she would sleep at all, but it had been days since she had someone to watch her back while she slept, so she found herself dozing off against her backpack. She fought with everything she had to stay awake, but her eyelids were too heavy and sleep was too welcoming. The next thing she knew, everything was turning black and she was out like a flashlight.

* * *

Her body was being shaken violently. She could hear muffled shouting and the _crack_ of a gunshot. Riley bolted upright, the sleep vanishing from her body as she looked around. Carl was crouched next to her and once he knew she was awake, he let go of her shoulders.

"Took you long enough!" he shouted bitterly. "We need to get out of here!"

"_What_ is going on?!" she growled, pulling out her gun quickly and glancing around. She could make out Rick a little ways away trying to keep two eaters at bay. Michonne was nowhere to be found, but she could hear her sword slicing through the air. It was only when she took a closer look that she realized there was an entire herd of eaters surrounding them, and one of them was headed straight toward her and Carl.

Without waiting for his response, she clicked the safety off her gun and took aim, taking the eater down. Then, she reached for her backpack and slung it over her shoulder before scrambling to her feet. The eaters were beginning to close in on them and she could barely hear Rick's screams over the rapid thumping of her heart.

"Run! Run!"

Riley took off running, dodging eaters as they reached their disgusting, rotting hands for her face. She took two more of them down on the way, but after that, she was out of ammo. There were some loose bullets in her backpack, but she didn't have the time to stop and find them. She could see Rick and Michonne's figures just up ahead. Carl was probably just ahead of them. She was the one falling behind. _Almost there. Just hurry up and run faster..._

And then she was being yanked back by her black hair, the growling of an eater whispering in her ear, beckoning her to a feast - a feast of her own flesh. Riley let out a strangled cry as she struggled to escape the grip of the eater. The other eaters were moving in on her when they realized she was trapped. The figures of Rick and Michonne had disappeared and she was alone. Suddenly, the crack of a gunshot filled her ears and the eater that had its grasp on her hair went limp. She shook the dead eater off and glanced to her right to see Carl.

"Come on!" he shouted, taking off as the eaters closed in on them.

Riley didn't hesitate. She caught up with the boy, taking in short, quick gasps of air to fill up her lungs. Carl must have been behind her rather than in front of her. Even though she and Carl didn't really get along, she was glad he was there or it would have ended a lot differently.

The longer they ran, the more distant the snarling of the eaters became and soon she had to stop to breathe. She bent over and placed her hands on her knees, trying to steady her breaths as Carl did the same.

"W-where is your dad and Michonne?" she spluttered, looking over at him.

"They w-were just up ahead last time I checked," he replied breathlessly.

Riley quickly scanned the area around them, seeing no signs of Michonne or Rick. She couldn't hear anyone shouting or any of the eaters anymore either. Everything was silent. Slowly, she straightened up and took a deep breath, her blue eyes locking with Carl's. "We're alone."

* * *

**A/N: And just as a warning before you start reading this author's note, it's probably going to be long. I hope that you enjoyed this first chapter of my very first Walking Dead fanfiction. I was honestly a little bit unsure about doing any Walking Dead fanfics because I didn't know if I could do any of the characters justice. I'm still a little unsure about that, so if you enjoyed this or saw anything that was ooc, _please _let me know in a review! I want to try and do the best I can with this story, so feedback is really important. On a side note, this is the longest chapter I have ever written (5,000 words) and I have a feeling that most of the other chapters will be around the same length. Although, since I have other stories I'm writing right now and due to the fact that chapters will be longer, I might not be able to update as often as I would hope. But I will surely try!**

**If you're wondering why I've chosen Carl/Oc as my first TWD fic, well, I honestly wasn't gong to at first. I wanted to do a Canon/Oc story that wasn't too popular (unlike Daryl/Oc, but I have and idea for that so I might end up doing it even though there are so many). I was originally going to do Rick/Oc because I have barely seen any on here, but I could not come up with a single good idea for a plotline. I also didn't want to do any characters that were too minor since I'm still unsure about writing even the main characters. I looked up Carl/Oc and didn't see a whole lot and since Carl's character is a little bit easier than some of the others, I decided to go with it. I did tweak Carl's age slightly, as he's really supposed to be 14, but I moved him up a year. Hopefully it's not too big of a deal. **

**And finally, to end this hideously long author's note, I just want to warn you that this is not going to be a very "happy and easy" romance story. Romance isn't even going to be the main part and it will be _very _eventual. It's going to be dark and full of hardships (but I'll try to keep a light element to some of it). I'm also a little unsure if I should keep this story rated T, so if there's anything you see that might merit it an M, just let me know. So as of now, the rating might change to M later for gore and violence. **

**Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! This is just the beginning! Thanks for reading! **


	2. Circles

_"We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided." - J.K. Rowling_

* * *

**Chapter 2: Circles**

Carl was a lot quieter than Riley was expecting. Maybe he was just thinking of a way to get them out of this situation. Or maybe he was just too surprised that he would have to deal with her bossing him around until they found Rick and Michonne again. Taking a quick glance around, she bent down and began to rummage through her backpack when she saw that there weren't any eaters in the immediate vicinity. At the very bottom of her backpack, she was able to feel the cold metal bullets and she scooped them up.

"They might not be too far," Carl muttered, scanning the woods almost nervously.

Riley pulled the clip out of her gun and began to slide her four remaining bullets inside. "Yeah, because running around the woods in random directions will help us find exactly where they are."

"Do you have a better idea? Because sitting around here waiting for them to find us is a worse idea than that." His voice was stiff and harsh.

"The logical thing to do is stay put. If they come looking for us, which I'm sure they will, it'll be easier if we stay here. We might end up going in the opposite direction."

"But if we're both looking for each other, then there is a greater possibility of us finding them. If you want to stay here, fine. But I'm going to go look for them."

Riley scowled and crossed her arms, waiting for him to leave. It looked like she was just going to go back to being alone again. Carl began to walk off into the darkness and he disappeared inside the brush. Finally, she was alone and she didn't have to deal with his snotty attitude. Now she just had to focus on getting out of these woods herself and finding somewhere to stay. She didn't know how late in the night it was, but she figured that she had at least slept for a few hours. It was probably around one in the morning. It would be difficult to navigate the woods at this hour, but she would do it anyway. She didn't have too much of a choice in the matter anyway.

If she ran into Rick and Michonne, maybe she would try and help them find Carl. He had been too stubborn to listen to her, but she knew that Rick wouldn't be able to handle it if anything happened to Carl. She had seen it when they had been fighting the eaters back at the office buildings. And Rick had given her water and let her come along when he didn't have to. She at least owed them that much. However, if she didn't see them, she wasn't going to go out of her way to try and find them.

Just as Riley was about to take off deeper into the wilderness, a figure slowly appeared out of the shadows. She instinctively raised her gun, but lowered it as soon as she realized that it was Carl. What was he doing back? Did he finally decide that it would be better to cooperate with her now?

"Thought you went lookin' for your dad. Find anything?" She raised an eyebrow.

Carl didn't say anything for a moment and simply glared at her. There was a little bit of something else underneath his initial first layer, though. If she was correct, it was hesitation.

"Did an eater render your voice box useless? If you're going to say something, spit it out and stop trying to be dramatic. I have to get out of here and find somewhere safe to say."

Carl looked away and muttered moodily, "I don't know which direction we came."

Riley smirked at his confession. "Even if I did remember which direction we came from, what makes you think that I'd help you? You aren't the nicest monkey in the zoo."

"How can you just do that? How can you just be such a..."

"Such a _what?_ Not allowed to cuss?"

"How can you be such a _bitch?_ You should be grateful that we weren't the type of people who would shoot you without a thought! My dad wanted to help you and you're just blowing us off!" his voice rose to a shout.

"I barely know you! What makes you think that I would follow you guys around like a puppy and do everything you say?!"

"You just don't follow anyone, do you? You make your own rules!"

"The government isn't exactly intact! Rules don't exist anymore! Apocalypse, remember?!"

Carl's fists clenched and he gave her a piercing stare. She stared right back, nostrils flaring like a horse. This argument was getting them nowhere. They might as well just be going in circles now, calling each other names and insulting one another. He opened his mouth to speak once more, but the cracking of a twig caught their attention and both of their heads snapped to where it had come from. Next, they heard a moan, then two more. A rotting hand appeared in the moonlight, reaching out to grab Carl.

"Run!" she bellowed, shoving Carl forward.

Not only had Riley just saved his life again, she had also gotten out some pent up anger. If only she could give him a good shove again...

The two of them began their sprint for the second time that night. Their shouting must have attracted the herd. Now they really were going to be lost. The only hope they had would be if Rick and Michonne had heard their shouting too. As they continued running, she made sure to keep her distance from Carl in case they had to switch directions rapidly. They were lucky to have escaped the eaters for a second time. Their day had just been full of luck. Luck doesn't last forever and she needed to remember that. She had been too careless.

They didn't get too far before she was needing air again. Shouting at him had left her a lot more breathless than she thought. Carl was thinking the same thing, because he reached over and pulled her sleeve roughly to stop her.

"Can't stop now!" she wheezed, looking back. She could still hear them moaning and shuffling their way.

"I-I can't breathe," he gasped, leaning against a nearby tree.

Riley tried to spot the eaters in the dark, but it was near impossible. She couldn't get a clear shot. It would be likely that she would miss if she tried. Best not to waste the bullets.

"Riley!" he suddenly called out and she looked over to see him halfway up a tree. "Get up here!"

Was he for real? Sure, climbing a tree was a good idea, but _why_ was he helping her? He could have easily climbed up the tree without telling her and leave her to be devoured. He had every right to want to have that be the case. She had shouted at him, pushed him, and insulted him. There was _no_ reason for him to help her. She had saved his life, but he had also saved hers. They were even and he was still helping her again.

"Riley!" he shouted again. "Give me your hand, _now_!"

She wasn't just going to stand there like an idiot gaping at him. With all haste, she jumped up, grabbing onto the lowest limb with one hand and reaching out for Carl's arm with the other. He gripped her arm just below her elbow and began to pull her up with all of his strength. Riley's boot skimmed the top of an eater's head as she was pulled up, but she was safely on the limb of the tree before it could reach up and grab her. She didn't stop at the first limb and began to climb higher until she felt that she was at a safe distance from the eaters below.

The only problem they had now was getting down in the morning. The eaters would probably still be around, or at least a majority of them would be. She glanced sideways at Carl, who was still trying to catch his breath.

"Why did you help me?" she pressed, keeping her hand firmly wrapped around the branch above her.

He remained still for a moment and then turned his head to face her. His piercing blue eyes narrowed slightly, but he didn't snap at her like she was expecting. "Because I'm still human."

Both of them were silent after that for a long time. In fact, it was starting to get light out before either of them said anything. He was the first to speak.

"Most of them are still around, but they've given up trying to get at us. Our best bet is to get down now and run again."

Riley let out an exasperated sigh. "Run again? Are you kidding? Can't we try to get over to the tree next to us?"

"Let's not argue again," Carl said coldly. "Look where that got us."

She hated to admit it, but he had a point. If they started to argue again, they might resort to shouting, and that would just get the eaters attention again.

"Fine. Let's just hurry up and get out of here."

"I'll go down first. You cover me and then when I get to the ground I'll cover you," he explained.

Riley nodded stiffly at him and then he began to descend. She followed after him, stopping halfway down and raising her gun in case any of the eaters noticed them getting down. He was being pretty quiet, so he wasn't noticed until his feet landed on the crunchy leaves below. A nearby eater made a grab at him, but he was quick and took it down with a knife that she didn't know he was carrying. He then motioned for her to get down and she shoved her gun in her jean, freeing up her hands so she could climb more quickly. A few times on her way down, she heard the oozing of brains as Carl killed off more eaters that began to notice them, but she was able to make it to the ground without being too worried that they would get overwhelmed.

Once she made it to the ground, they started to slip away, staying as quiet as possible but also going as fast as possible. A small group of five eaters were tailing them, but they would be easy to kill between the two of them. She raised her gun, ready to shoot, but he quickly shoved her hand down.

"If we shoot them, the others will come running! Don't you know anything?"

Without another word, he moved toward the closest one and grabbed its shirt, pulling its head down enough so he could stab it in the skull. A surge of hot anger crackled through her system and she quickly exchanged her gun for her knife and followed his example. Soon enough, the five eaters were laying dead in a pile at their feet. Now they could actually get moving again.

"So do you remember which way we came?" she asked, her tone slightly mocking.

Carl rolled his eyes before looking around. "Well...no."

Riley sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Let's just start walking, then..."

And so their morning began. There were no signs of Michonne or Rick for a little while, but Carl pointed out some tracks in the ground after they had been walking for a good thirty minutes.

"Could be them."

Riley rolled her eyes. "Do you know how many people have probably been doing exactly what we are doing? Could be anyone."

"And anyone includes my dad."

"Well yeah I guess... Could also just be eater tracks, too."

"We don't have anything else to go off of. This is our best chance."

"Alright, alright, you got me there," she muttered.

The two didn't have to go very far before the trees were thinning out. Gravel was the first thing visible and then the old, rusted train tracks. The footprints must have been from earlier or someone else. It was more likely that they were from earlier. Since they hadn't seen anyone else yet, she assumed that only she, Rick, Carl, and Michonne were the ones wandering out in the woods.

"These were from before we found you," he groaned softly. "The creek we found shouldn't be too far from here. We should head there to get some water. I left the jug in the middle of the woods."

"Sounds good to me," she replied. Any sort of running water sounded good.

"Whoa did I just hear that correctly?"

"What?" she snapped, her eyebrows furrowing. What had she said?

"You actually agreed with me." A small smirk tugged at his lips. It was barely noticeable, but just the fact that she _noticed_ made it seem a lot bigger than it really was. Heat rushed up to her cheeks.

"Ha-ha." Her reply was incredibly lame, but she was so flustered that she couldn't think of a witty remark. So she had agreed with him. Big deal. Water was important, why was he making it such a catastrophic event?

"No sarcastic remark?"

Riley blew her ebony bangs out of her eyes in exasperation. "Let's just keep moving, okay?"

She picked up her pace to a speedy walk and he soon caught up with her. He was the one who knew where the creek was, so she'd have to let him be the one to lead the way. As they walked, she could still make out some of the footprints on the ground, but the further they walked, the more they disappeared. There appeared to be a good amount of staggering tracks crossing through and heading toward the woods they had just escaped. The eaters that they had run into... She wondered exactly what had attracted them to the woods in the first place, but it was possible it could have just been a herd passing through. The thought of the herds made her shudder. It was nothing she wanted to think about. Not after...

Riley shook her head quickly and looked away from the tracks. It was better to focus her mind on what they were doing now. It would be dangerous to get lost in her thoughts, especially if there were more eaters around, or worse, other living people.

"Hey, this way!" Carl exclaimed suddenly, veering off the endless train tracks and onto a dirt pathway.

Riley picked up a jog to catch up and once they were in the woods again, she could see the small creek just up ahead. Sweet running water! She didn't care that it was probably a dirty mud hole. All she cared was that it was something to drink and wash her filthy hair in. When she reached the bank, she fell down onto her knees and cupped her hands to scoop up the water to her mouth. It took a few good handfuls to keep her thirst at bay. Then, she splashed some water onto her face. It was like swimming in a pool.

The creek wasn't actually deep enough to swim in, but she could dip her hair in easily enough.

"How are we going to collect any of it? You got anything in your bag?" he questioned, rubbing some of the water droplets on his face.

She slid the backpack off her shoulders and pulled out an empty water bottle, handing it to him. "Only one I got, but it'll have to work."

After unofficially giving him the task of filling up the water bottle, she untied her boots and then began to walk into the water. The deepest area of the creek only went up to the bottom of her knees. She then dipped her head down into the water and tried to work the dirt out with her hands. It turned out to be only partially successful. However, she still felt refreshed and a little bit cleaner.

"Guess now we should try and head back to the buildings. How long d'you think it'll take to get from here to there?"

Carl shrugged. "Dunno. Took us a while to get there. Maybe half a day?"

"Well by the time we get there it should be a little after noon, maybe twoish. Let's hurry and just get this over with."

Putting her boots back on and her backpack over her shoulder, they headed back toward the train tracks.

"So what's the story of the hat, Sheriff's Deputy?"

Carl was silent for a moment before saying, " it's my dad's. He was a sheriff before all of this."

"Cute." She rolled her eyes.

"Where are your parents?"

"I didn't say _you_ could ask me questions."

His eyes glanced down to the ground when he realized what she really meant. "Oh."

"Yeah..."

Riley never really liked to talk about her parents. Not after everything that happened. He was still lucky to have at least one of his parents. Or maybe he had both. She didn't really know since his mom hadn't been with his dad, but it was possible that she was with the rest of the group they were trying to find. She could be completely untactful and ask, but she didn't. It was something she understood, so she wasn't going to go bugging him. Not like she cared, anyway...

"Why are you so closed off?" he asked suddenly.

Her eyebrows furrowed. Why was she so closed off? That was a stupid question. Did he even look around at the world they lived in? Or maybe he had just been in a fairytale world until his group had gotten separated. He didn't seem like he had been, though. He knew exactly how to kill the eaters and he definitely wasn't acting like everything was okay. Maybe he just hadn't been in as dark of a place as she had been.

"Why are you so open?" she countered.

"I'm not. Just not as closed off as you are."

"Well aren't you just a balance beam."

"You're avoiding my question."

Riley stopped suddenly, her eyes narrowing as he caught his gaze. "You won't know. And you never will. You don't know me and what I've done."

"Everyone has had to do something they never thought they would. You're not anything special."

"Maybe not. But even though everything I've done might not be the worst, it has still affected _me._"

Riley watched as his eyes darted all over her face as if he was trying to think of something to say, but after a few moments, she realized that he wasn't going to say anything. Turning away, she started to walk again, her gaze intense on the empty train tracks ahead. Something shining on the side of the trees caught her attention and she swerved in front of Carl to go and see what it was. Maybe it was Michonne and her katana?

Upon closer look, she realized that it was a sign attached to a tree. All it had was an arrow that was pointing toward the woods. What was that supposed to mean?

"Did you see this on the way before?" she asked.

He shook his head. "No. But we should probably keep moving."

"It won't take long to look," she muttered and took off down the ghost of a path without waiting for him.

She heard him let out an irritated noise, but she ignored him. A few more signs were scattered along the way, and the woods opened up into a large field where a house was poking out of the tall grass. It was possible this house could have been untouched by others. Any supplies would be good.

"Now are you glad we came this way?" Riley shot him a smirk before practically leaping into the tall grass. It only went up to her shoulders, so she would still be able to see where she was going. Someone really needed to come in here with a lawnmower...

It was a fight to get to the house. Even though she could still see clearly where she was going, the grass was still tall enough to entangle itself in her belt and around her arms. She was constantly having to stop to yank the strands from her belt and push aside clumps of the grass to make it easier for her to continue on. The closer they got, the more clearly they could see the house. There didn't appear to be any eaters around, which had to have been luck. This house might not be a bad place to hole up for awhile. It seemed untouched and the creek wasn't too far from here.

"No walkers," he murmured, stopping in front of the house.

"No walkers," she agreed.

Still, just as a precautionary, she took out her knife as she approached the door. First, she pressed her ear against the wood. There were no moans or growls. Cautiously, she reached out and opened the door. It was surprisingly dark inside, but overall it was..._clean_. It hadn't been looted, unless the looters decided to put everything back in a neat order, which was unlikely.

Carl stepped ahead of her and slipped into another room. Rolling her eyes, she went the opposite direction and found herself in a living room. It was small and cozy with a pink couch and chair. There wasn't a television anywhere, but there was a nice little fireplace. Nothing really seemed to be of use in the room, so she headed to the hallway to find a small bedroom in the back with just a queen sized bed and a few dressers. She began to rummage through the dressers to find some clothes she might be able to use. A jacket maybe?

The clothes were much to big for her, but some of the light sweaters she found would be useful for when it started to get cold again. She tucked two away in her backpack and then headed back into the main hallway. Carl was in the small kitchen, but it seemed he had found food because of the cans on the counter. She picked one up an read the label.

"Canned potatoes? Guess that's better than peas..."

He rolled his eyes. "Any food is better than none. See if you can find any knives in the drawer."

Riley ducked over the open mahogany cabinet to the drawers and began searching. There was a drawer full of knives, but there was only one that was really useful because it was larger and stronger. It was so sharp that whoever lived here had slipped a cover over it to prevent anyone from cutting themselves. She shrugged, unhooking her folded knife from her belt and slipping it into her boot. She then hooked the new knife around her belt loop.

"Anything else useful?" she questioned.

"Not really. The two cans was all I could find. Everything else was spoiled."

"Alright. Guess we'd better head back to the tracks."

She plopped the two cans of potatoes into her backpack and then zipped it up. He was already ahead of her and heading toward the door. She made sure to close it tightly in case they needed to come back. The way back through the grass wasn't any easier than it had been before, but she had a technique down so that she wouldn't have to constantly stop to pull the strings of grass off her body.

The rest of the trip was made in silence, but she could tell that Carl was itching to get to the buildings to see if his dad was there. Hadn't he ever been on his own before? He must have been really lucky to have gotten through everything with his father by his side. She had only met someone her age one other time but she never really got along with that person...well she didn't really get along much with Carl either, but at least he knew how to take care of himself. The other girl she had met had been a complete novice and was always hiding behind her parents whenever something happened.

In this new world, everyone had to know how to defend themselves. Everyone had to know how to use a gun. Everyone needed to know when to stay away from strangers and when it was okay to approach them. In a sense, there were more rules now than there had ever been before all of this.

It was about mid-afternoon by the time they reached the three office buildings they had met at yesterday. On this side of the trees, it was hard to see them, but she could hear the moans and snarls. Riley crept up through the trees and peered around one of them to get a better look. Carl crouched down beside her.

There was about a dozen eaters. She and Carl wouldn't be able to take them all on her own. She only had four bullets left and she wasn't sure if he had any left. Trying to take them out with just knives would be suicide. There were no signs that Michonne and Rick had been up this way and she didn't see them hanging around the outskirts. It was a good idea that they would have been here, they just weren't here now. Maybe they would come along later? The best thing to do would be to head back to that house and then check back in over here tomorrow. If they still weren't here by tomorrow, then they must have been going somewhere in the opposite direction.

"They're not here," she whispered, glancing over at him.

He stared at the lot for a moment more before nodding slowly and sighing. "We should wait here, see if they turn up."

Riley shook her head. "Are you crazy? Look, I know that you want to get back to your dad, but if we stay here, we're sitting bait! Besides, it's going to get dark soon and we can head back to that farmhouse where it's safe."

"If they come back while we're gone, they won't know we've been here," he argued, his eyebrows furrowing.

"And you'd rather potentially get devoured by eaters waiting?"

Carl gritted his teeth and looked down at the ground for a moment. He then stood up slowly. "Let's go."

And then they began their journey back to the farmhouse. The whole day they had just been going in circles.

* * *

**A/N: I apologize if this isn't the most interesting chapter, but it needed to happen. I needed to get Riley and Carl a little more comfortable with each other before diving into the nitty gritty. I promise the next chapter will pick up. This chapter is a lot of back and forth, which is kind of implied by the title, but I hope I didn't bore you too much. I tried to add some banter between them to make it more interesting. Anyway, I'm _extremely _surprised by the response to this! Thank you guys so much for all of the reviews, follows, and favorites! I'm really glad that you like the first chapter and I hope this one didn't disappoint too much! Hopefully I've kept Carl somewhat in character. But if you have any critiques, please don't hesitate to let me know! Again, thanks so much for the support and hope you enjoyed this chapter!  
**


	3. I Can't Do It

_"H.O.P.E. Hold on, pain ends." - Unknown_

* * *

**Chapter 3: I Can't Do It**

Riley gasped, sitting upright as her eyes flew open like a shutter. Wide blue orbs frantically darted around the room to take in her surroundings. A pink couch she was on and an empty fireplace took up the majority of the room. She was back at that little farm house. She was safe, not in any danger. She could breathe. Unsticking her sweat-soaked shirt from her skin, she looked down on the ground, where Carl's sleeping form was. Everything was just as it had been last night before she fell asleep... The small amount of light shining through the curtains meant it was probably still early, around six or six thirty.

Slowly, she got up off the couch, catching herself as her legs buckled from the surge of anxiety she just had. Her head was spinning slightly, but she ignored it and moved across the room to where her backpack sat against the wall. She bent down and began to rummage through it to find one of the cans Carl found yesterday. Her hand found the cool metal and she pulled it out, shooting a glance in Carl's direction. If he didn't wake up soon, she'd have to wake him up herself. They didn't have time to sit around here. They had to go look for Rick and Michonne. If they didn't find the two within a few hours, it would probably be a good idea to look for other places around here that might have food or ammunition.

She brought the can into the kitchen, placing it on the counter and then beginning to look through the drawers for can openers. If she could find one, it would make everything a lot easier. Opening a can with a knife was difficult and it was easy to get cut. Cuts were definitely not good with eaters around. She had learned that the hard way.

Luckily, she found a can opener in the second drawer she tried. Slamming the tool down on the top of the can, Riley opened it up and discarded the scrap metal in the sink. The wolf in her stomach was beginning to growl and snap for the food as its bland smell reached her nose. So not wasting any time, she pulled a fork out of a nearby drawer and began to eat the potatoes. Her wolf-stomach began to calm the more food she shoved into her body, but she had to stop when she was halfway through to save some for Carl. She wasn't used to sharing food, so it was hard to stop eating, but she didn't need him passing out on her from lack of food.

"Save me any?"

His sudden voice sent her reflexes into motion and she couldn't stop herself in time. Riley spun around, her hands immediately flying to the collar of his shirt as she shoved him hard against the counter. His eyes went wide as his spine slammed against the granite and he winced in her grasp. For a moment, she stood there and stared right into his blue eyes. The heat of his skin radiated off onto her hands and arms that were pressed against his chest and neck and both of them remained silent. And then she pulled away.

"Don't do that again," she muttered, turning away so she wouldn't have to look at him.

"Yeah, I got that," he hissed, coming up beside her and rubbing his lower back.

She didn't say anything after that and left him alone in the kitchen to go back into the living room to calm down. All of her behavior had been learned in the past few weeks. She always had to sleep with an eye open and any sudden movement, voice, or noise sent her reflexes into overdrive. Now, she needed to get it in her head that there was someone else with her. She needed to differentiate Carl from the eaters. He was safe - or safer than the undead at least - and the eaters were not. It would take a little while for her brain to make the distinction, but it was a must unless she wanted to go maiming him every five minutes.

A slow movement out of the corner of her eye told her that he had come to stand in the doorway.

"So we're going to go back to those buildings today?" he asked, not bothering to hide the irritation in his voice.

Riley turned to look at him as he stuffed the rest of the potatoes in his mouth. "Yeah. And if your dad and Michonne aren't there, we should go looking around other places to try and find food and supplies. If we could find some more ammo, then maybe we could try to hunt."

"I know a bit about hunting."

She rolled her eyes at his confidence, though it seemed more like arrogance to her. "Of course you do. Because you know everything."

Ignoring the look on his face, she picked her backpack up off the ground and slung it over her shoulder. "Now let's hurry up and go do this. We should go back to the creek first. We'll need the water."

She brushed past him, heading for the door and opening it. He followed after her and shut the door firmly behind him. The two made their way through the field and then back to the creek. It was a relatively short trip, but the walk to the buildings was a little longer. It was probably a little before noon by the time they saw the three little buildings through the trees. However, they weren't able to get too close at first. The eaters that were in the parking lot yesterday were now spread out all over the place. It would be suicide to try and wade through the flowing river of walkers. But they still needed to try and find Michonne and Rick somehow. This was their only landmark.

"We should circle around and see if they're somewhere in the area," Carl suggested in a low voice.

Riley nodded slowly, pressing her palms into the bark of the tree next to her. "We'll try that. If we can't see them, we can wait a little while."

Carl took up the lead, which she wasn't too happy about, but since this was his dad they were looking for, she'd let it slide for now. The two began to creep around the lot. He was searching left and right for his father, which left her the task of keeping any eaters at bay. Since they were all spread out, it was a little hard to avoid them completely, so she ended up having to kill three or four along the way. Each were taken out silently with her knife, with not more than a seconds time to do it. However, there was one walker that was being particularly difficult. It mus have been a freshly turned walker because its skull was harder than most of the others. Her knife got stuck in its skull and she had to pull Carl to a stop until she could get it out.

"Hurry up!" he hissed, bending down and putting his hands on his knees.

"Shut up, you're just making it worse!" she snapped, giving the knife a nice hard pull and effectively pulling the blade out of the rotten eater's head.

He shot her a glare, but quickly began to move once more now that she had retrieved her knife. He was moving quite quickly and she found it difficult to keep up with him, which frustrated her. But she wasn't going to admit that she was having trouble. So Riley quickened her pace. Her body began to sweat even more ferociously than it already was with every passing moment, and she was beginning to crave water.

"Hold on a minute," she panted, stopping by a tree and bending down.

She let her backpack slide off her shoulders and she unzipped it to pull out the water bottle. Carl leaned against the tree, scanning the area as she gulped down a few mouthfuls of water. Biting her lip, she glanced over at him and after a moment of hesitation, she nudged him and held out the water for him. He looked down at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Just take it and stop gaping at me like an idiot," she muttered.

He looked down at the water before taking it from her and raising the bottle to his lips. She shifted her attention to her surroundings to make sure that no eaters were lingering around. There were a few a little ways off, but they were alright for now as long as they stayed put.

"It doesn't look like they're here," she whispered, catching his eye as he handed the half-empty water bottle back to her.

"We've only been here for ten minutes. They could be on their way here now," he murmured.

Riley huffed. "Fine. Why don't we sit here for a bit and then we can circle back around to the road over there?" She jerked her head in the direction of the road hidden by the trees to their left. "If we follow the road, it might lead to somewhere we could find supplies."

Carl nodded stiffly. "Alright."

She leaned back up against the tree and slid down so she was sitting on the ground. The eaters wouldn't notice them since they were already a good distance away and low to the ground. He settled down next to her and began to look through the trees at the clearing where they had first met. A silence settled between the two and Riley was grateful for it. Of course, he had to break it to start up a conversation.

"We shouldn't have to wait very long. Hopefully they'll be here soon," he muttered.

She rolled her eyes. "You do realize that they could have run off in a completely different direction. We don't know which way they went. Hope all you want, though if it makes you feel better."

He looked over at her, eyebrows furrowed and eyes narrowed. "No wonder why no one wanted to be with you."

She snapped like a twig. "Hope is stupid! How can you still think there's _hope_ in a world like this?! How is there _hope_ when a snarling monster rips your group apart?! Face it, there's no _hope_ left and your dad is never coming back!"

Riley stood abruptly, shouldering her backpack and glancing around at the eaters that had begun to notice them. "Let's go."

Without waiting for Carl, she began to slip away toward the clear, abandoned road. Her pace quickened to a jog and he soon caught up with her. She couldn't wait to get away from this kid. He was continually evoking these unpleasant emotions that she wanted to forget. It was like every word he said brought her spiraling back to her loss, her own experiences in this darkened shadow of a world... There were reasons why she forgot. She couldn't survive and let her emotions free-roam. She had to lock them away and move on.

Her gaze wandered back over her shoulder, where three walkers were still tailing them. She halted and let her backpack slide off her shoulders, flicking open her knife and making a mad grab at the nearest one. All of the rage and emotion that was making her feel raw and vulnerable went into thrusting the knife into its skull. Her lips curled into a snarl and she lunged toward the other one, twisting the knife into its rotten head. With a final jab, the last one fell lifeless and she sneered down at them. They had taken away everything.

Despite her ferocious expression, her shoulders slumped in defeat and she carefully wiped the knife on her jeans to clean it off. Slowly, she turned back around, her bright blue gaze meeting Carl's. His brow was puckered and his eyes were void of emotion. She didn't have to see any emotion to know he was thinking that she was a psychopath.

Tearing her gaze from his, Riley bent down to retrieve the water bottle from her backpack. After just a little splosh of the liquid on her hand, she wiped off the offending blood and then wiped her hands on her jeans. Tucking everything back into place, she shoved the backpack on her shoulders once more before beginning to walk again. Walking. It seemed like that was all she had been doing since this started. All she did was walk. Try to find somewhere safe to stay. Try to find supplies. _Walk._

Carl didn't attempt to make any conversation this time. He was learning.

He was very different than she was, if she were being honest with herself. She was definitely more stubborn and she would have continued to try and pursue conversation if she were him. He was also more unrealistic. Hope. Stupid _hope_. And finding his dad? One in a million chance. Maybe she was just too far gone. Maybe she just didn't see a good thing left in this world. Maybe it had taken her down with it too. She bit the inside of her cheek. _I can never come back from what I've done..._

The road began to widen and the trees began to thin out and a small strip mall came into view. It looked abandoned, just like the rest of the buildings now. A few cars were strewn around the parking lot and there were two eaters wandering around. She glanced sideways over at Carl.

"You know how to hot wire a car?"

He rolled his eyes. "No."

Riley sighed. She hadn't expected him to, but these days, kids their age could do a lot of things they hadn't done before the apocalypse. It would have been convenient though.

"We need to take out these two walkers," he muttered.

Her eyes shifted between the two rotting bodies and her head bobbed up and down in an agreeing nod. "I'll get the one on the right and you get the one on the left."

Without waiting for his response, she slipped away from him and toward the one on the right. It was an older man before it had turned. About ten feet away, it noticed her and scrambled over in a flurry of broken arms and rotting fingers. Riley kicked it back hard and while it was dazed, she pulled out her knife and grabbed it by the collar of its shirt. Its snapping teeth ceased as she jabbed the knife into its skull and she let it drop to the ground. Deep blue eyes met hers and she nodded firmly, sparing only a glance at the walker he killed.

Wordlessly, the two joined sides once more and headed right to the convenient store that was just up ahead. She got down low when they reached the window and poked her head up just enough to look inside. Her heart skipped a beat.

Like sloths, at least seven eaters were groaning and shuffling in the aisles. Shelves were overturned, blood was slick on the floors, walls were coated in dust and grime...but she could just make out a shelf full of snacks that had barely been touched. The only problem was actually getting to it. The store was small so it would be easy to get cornered, and with that many eaters, going in and shooting up the place was a bad idea.

Riley's eyes zipped over to the rest of the strip mall, looking for any other store that might be goo enough for them to scavenge through. A salon, pet store, pizza place, karate studio... Nothing that would help them out. This was their only option.

"We have to go in there," she whispered, grimacing.

Carl's eyes widened and then his face contorted into irritation. "Are you serious? We'll get ourselves killed if we go in there! There's gotta be somewhere else we can go."

Riley shook her head. "No other food places besides that pizza place. The food there has to be spoiled by now."

"We can always eat dog food," he muttered, so low that she barely caught it.

"Yeah Fido, why don't you go and get some dog food?"

Riley gritted her teeth and began to slip away, a plan forming in mind. "We need to go around the back. It'll be safer to go in that way and we can scope everything out without being in the open."

The door on the other side of the store wasn't locked and it led to the back office. From there, they could get a better view of the store and any way they could get to the food.

"Help..."

Springs in her feet propelled her backwards out of the doorway and out of instinct, she grabbed onto the closest thing, which just so happened to be Carl's arm. Alert eyes darted back into the office, where a helpless man laid on the ground in the corner. She walked forward slowly, her grip still tight on Carl's forearm until he pried her fingers away. She hadn't even realized she had grabbed onto him until then...

It wasn't even important anymore because she immediately noticed the large bite wound on the man's neck. Dull, lifeless gray skin and bags under his eyes indicated the inevitable: it wouldn't be long before he turned. She was at a loss of what to do. Well she knew what had to be done, but...she only had four bullets left and that would alert the eaters...and she had never outright stabbed a living person in the head. And she couldn't just...not after... This hesitancy Carl picked up on.

"You know what we have to do...," he murmured, his bright eyes darkened in a way she hadn't seen before.

Riley hardened her mask and nodded. "I know."

She took a deep breath, slowly moving forward and crouching down next to the man. His eyes frantically darted all over her face, but he didn't move.

"I c-can't...feel cold...," he blubbered, taking a shaky breath.

"It's alright," she said quietly, fist clenching around the handle of her knife. And she raised it.

But she couldn't.

_Stop being a baby. This has to be done. You've killed people before. This is nothing new. Do it before he turns._

A warm hand wrapped around her own and she turned her head to look up at Carl, who had taken the knife from her fingers. She slid back, rising to full height and locking eyes with him. He held her gaze for a moment and turning to do what had to be done.

"Close your eyes," she whispered, the man obeying after a moment.

And then it was over.

A huge cement block lifted from her lungs and she took in the humid air. He handed her back the knife and she wiped it clean before clipping it onto her belt loop. This man had probably died doing the same thing they were trying to do...because that thought made her feel so much better about doing this. Her eyes snapped up to the window that led from the office to the rest of the store. The shades were closed, which was a good thing for them. Time to move on and think about more pressing matters. She moved forward to peek through the shades. The layout of the store was simple and small, which would help when they were maneuvering around the place. If they split off in two, they would be able to get through the place a lot more quickly; however, it would also make them more vulnerable to attack. The only other problem would be predicting the movements of the eaters.

They were all wandering aimlessly around through the aisles and behind the counter. Sneaking through would prove to be most effective, but if necessary, maybe they could use a distraction?

"Got an idea. So for now, the best thing to do would be to not disturb them. But I think that if something happens, we can use those glass bottles to distract them long enough to get what we need and get out of here. Guns only if something goes wrong," she said, glancing over at him as he moved to her side. "If we need to distract, we should throw the bottles by the front door, keep them away from what we need. We be quick. Get what we need and get out of there before they notice us. It won't be long before they smell something different."

"Seems...dangerous," he muttered, watching the walkers twitch and growl to themselves.

"Yeah, well what isn't dangerous anymore?" She crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow. With slow movements, she walked over to the door and put her hand on the knob, glancing back at the body of the man Carl had just killed. That could be them if they weren't careful.

The tension began to build as she slowly turned the knob and she bit her lip, feeling a sudden urge to turn away and forget about doing this. They could find food elsewhere, right? Did they really have to throw themselves into a store with ten or so walkers and hope they didn't get eaten alive? Could the two of them pull this off...? Her gaze clouded with uncertainty and she squeezed her eyes shut, exhaling all of the anxiety and worry that was festering in her body. They had to do this. They couldn't go walking around hoping for food to come to them.

Finally, she opened the door a hair, crouching down low and peering through the crack in the door. No eaters were too close, which was good. She shuffled her feet forward, opening the door slightly more and poking her head into the room to look around and see where the eaters were. There was one down the aisle to the right, but its back was to them. Her eyes connected with Carl's and she nodded slowly to assure him it was clear. Time to get this thing rolling.

With quick and silent footsteps, she slipped inside the room, eyes scanning over the shelves for anything that would be of use. Most of it was looted by now, but she did see some food that could be eaten before they entered. They just had to get around the eaters first. The shelves in this aisle were relatively clean, other than a few rags that she pocketed for later and the glass bottle she held onto for a distraction. Since there was a walker to the right side of the aisle, she headed to the left side, Carl right on her heels. She stopped just as they reached the end and did a quick peek around the corner. Rotten flesh caught her eye and she jumped back, bumping into Carl behind her.

Riley grimaced and froze, the sound of the eater growling growing slightly louder. Damn. The beating of her heart grew louder and louder until she could barely hear anything else. Her breath hitched in her throat and she waited for the monster to come stumbling around the corner to sink its teeth into her neck.

But it never came.

Her hand curled around the end of the shelf and she took another peek. The walker had shifted so it was turned away slightly and she let out a sigh of relief. It would be a tight jam to slip by it, but it wasn't impossible if they were quick enough. She turned to Carl, mouthing what she had in mind. _'We're going to slip by the eater one at a time.'_

_'Are you crazy?'_ His expression said it all.

_'Yes.'_

She then turned away, her muscles tensing as she slid out into the open. Her skin began to tingle in anxiety and she held in a breath, the stench of rotting flesh lingering in her nose for a moment before she let out a shaky exhale. And then she went for it. Her legs carried her faster than normal, but that wasn't a good thing.

Riley misjudged how tight of a squeeze it would be to slip past the eater. Her foot caught on the ankle of it and she went flying forwards into the next shelf over, a splitting pain erupting in her forehead as her head collided with the metal shelf.

Well shit.

* * *

**A/N: Did you really think they were going to get out of there without any trouble at all? :) Yes I know it's been forever. I'm super sorry about the wait! It's been difficult trying to juggle all my stories, but I guess my excuses don't really matter now. I hope this chapter made up for the long wait. I know it may seem like Riley is quite childish and angry, but I promise there are reasons for it. After what happened to her, she has a lot of anger and pent up emotions and it doesn't help that she's still changing into a teenager because that just throws everything out of whack even more. The hope theme also plays an important role, so keep that in mind. I'll try to update a lot sooner so I don't leave you with this cliffhanger for too long ;) Before I end this author's note, I want to thank each and every one of you that reviewed, followed, and favorited! Your kind words mean a lot and I hope that you're enjoying the story so far! **


	4. More Trouble

"In our darkest moments, when life flashes before us, we find something; something that keeps us going. Something that pushes us." - Lara Croft

* * *

**Chapter 4: More Trouble**

The world around her was spinning so furiously that she couldn't make out one thing from the next, but Riley was just glad she didn't black out. Being awake at least gave her the chance to fight, even if she could barely tell what were eaters and what were shelves of food. She just hoped that Carl would at least try to help her or she would definitely be done for. With all of the strength she could muster, she got to her feet, reaching out and using the shelf next to her for support. The world was a blur of colors and movement, but she could still feel the sticky, rotting hand grabbing her wrist just fine. Her eyes snapped to what she assumed to be the eater attempting to shove her hand in its throat and she blinked rapidly, trying to get the dizziness to go away as she tugged her arm hard to free herself from its grip.

Just as the eater's teeth were about to sink into her flesh, a loud, piercing gunshot broke out in the air and the eater dropped to the ground. Riley let out a shaky breath, her vision finally beginning to come back to her just in time to see Carl motioning for her to follow him. The hissing and snarling of the eaters behind her made her jump and she grabbed onto the back of Carl's shirt as she stumbled toward the door.

The two of them scrambled outside and in an attempt to stop the walkers from following them, Riley kicked the door shut. Only the undead were in the way and instead of shutting, it just rammed against their bodies. Everything was still a blur, even though she was starting to see more clearly, but her adrenaline was making everything speed up.

"Riley, run!" Carl's frantic voice broke through her hearing bubble that consisted of her rapid heartbeats one after the next.

Her fingers curled tighter against his shirt and she picked up her speed, breaths coming in rapid and heavy. It was now a race to survive and find somewhere they could hole up that was safe. They couldn't run all the way back to the farmhouse and it would be better if they didn't bring the attention of the walkers to that specific location. It seemed like all they did the past few days was run, walk, and hide. This was getting old really quickly.

The eaters were slower than the two, but they were still living people that needed to catch their breaths. Stopping for one second could be just the time that the dead needed to latch their teeth into their necks and end it for them. Every day was survival. Every day was more running. Every day was hiding and climbing and scratching and clawing to stay alive. There was no resting. There was no relaxing. If they did that for a second, they'd be dead. The world was drastically different, and not in a good way, but it was the way things were now and everyone had to accept it.

"Carl! F-faster!" she wheezed, giving him a light shove, but it only succeeded in making him topple over.

Shit.

Riley landed half on top of him, her hands still hanging on tightly to his shirt. Her immediate response was to scramble back, but she couldn't get anywhere because something grabbed onto her foot. Rolling over, her eyes snapped up to the walkers that were beginning to surround them. This was it. She was going to die. Carl shifted underneath her, promptly scooting out from underneath her and then wrapping his arms around her waist, giving her a hard tug.

"Come...on...Riley...," he breathed, the seconds ticking down as all of the other eaters caught up and crouched down toward them.

Everything got quiet and time slowed down. All she could focus on were the snarling eaters and Carl's warm hold on her. She couldn't just die. She had to keep going. She had to fight back. Her eyes steeled and her eyebrows knitted in determination. With her free foot, she aimed a hard kick at its face, causing it's nose to fly clean off. But it was too late, even if she was fighting back. The others were jumping right on them and her other foot was now in the grasp of another eater. Its mouth opened up as it bent down to rip her flesh out of her leg with its yellow teeth.

And then it was dead.

The gunshot didn't even register in her brain because she was so disoriented, but the rest of the eaters were dropping and she shook their grip off her legs, scrambling backwards and nearly plowing Carl over. Looking up, she spotted a small group of men just a little ways away with their guns aimed at the walking dead. Everything was beginning to go back to normal speed and she slowly got to her feet, dragging her backpack up with her and putting it back on her shoulders. Immediately, she drew her gun, but instead of aiming it at the walkers, she aimed it at the men. The walkers were mostly taken care of anyway and now they had to worry about these people. She had a hard time trusting others and just by looking at the men, she got a feeling that she couldn't ignore. Maybe she was just too paranoid.

"They...just helped us," Carl muttered, pulling out his own gun, but keeping his aim lower.

"But are you about to trust a bunch of strangers?" she asked, keeping her voice low and eyes locked on them as one raised his hands up in the air. His hair was greying and it was decently long. By the looks of it, he had been a biker or something along those lines. The rest of his group didn't look to friendly either. They looked like they could be a group of hunters.

"I ain't never seen a coupla kids on their own. You could have been seriously hurt, ya know? Your parents around?" He smiled slightly, taking a step closer. "We're not gonna hurt you."

Riley remained still, blue eyes scanning over each of them. One had a bow, the others had various guns and knives on them. "Stay back!" Her voice lowered slightly for what she said next to Carl. "You've got enough breath left in you to run?"

Her head was still spinning and the figures of the men were only just beginning to become clearer, but she would take her chances running again. They weren't safe out in the open and the thought of these men possibly being hunters made her nervous.

"Yeah I think so. Back to the house?" he murmured.

Her response was a slow nod and she chewed on her bottom lip, taking a step back away from the group of men. As she did so, the leader took another step toward her and her finger jumped toward the trigger in case he tried anything stupid. He immediately stopped, raising his hands higher in the air.

"Hey, I'm not gonna hurt you. We just wanna help. Name's Joe."

"We don't want your help!" she shouted. "We want you to leave us alone!"

"If they still have their weapons, there's no way we can outrun a bullet!" Carl hissed under his breath.

He was right. They needed to be unarmed before the two attempted to run off. If they ran now, they could easily whip out a gun and shoot them down if they tried. _Okay, think Riley, think..._ Her eyes narrowed slightly and she muttered over to Carl, "just follow my lead."

Quickly blinking away the dizziness and splitting pain in her forehead, she took a step toward them, gun still raised. "You put down your weapons, take a few steps away, and then we can talk."

"Come on, Joe!" one of the others exclaimed, clearly disgruntled by her commands. "We just wasted bullets on these kids!"

"Do what the girl says," Joe said, glancing back at them. "Go on."

And slowly, they began to shed themselves of their weaponry, depositing it on the ground at their shoes. Riley shifted her weight between her feet, and watched each weapon like a hawk as they hit the ground with heavy _clangs_. And then, Joe motioned for his group to step away from the weapons and they did, though reluctantly.

"_Three_," she whispered.

"See? We don't want any harm. I promise you," Joe spoke, but she wasn't paying attention.

"_Two._"

"We may have ran into your group if you're looking for them. At a house in a nice little neighborhood a ways back."

"Riley! I know who they are!"

"_One._"

And then, springing from her spot like a cat, she took off in a sprint, her eyes fixated on the woods. If they wanted to shake them loose, they'd have to dart through the trees. Which also meant that she and Carl could get separated. Glancing sideways, she saw a blur of the sheriff hat and she reached blindly for where she assumed his arm was. Her fingers wrapped around his hand, which was a little bit lower than she intended, but it was good enough. Running made her dizzy again and she slowed down a bit without realizing it. It made her wonder how hard she really hit her head and what was wrong with it. Hopefully nothing too serious. Though it probably wasn't if she was sprinting through the woods. Or it was just that survival instincts were clouding her pain. Probably that.

Gritting her teeth, she tugged him faster, the echo of a gunshot in the distance reaching her ears. She heard shouts and scampering, but it was distant and they were already far enough ahead. But they had to keep running if they wanted to increase the distance. Maybe even hide a little while before attempting to get back to the ranch house. Where would a good place to hide even be? The world around her was a blur again and the only thing that kept her from stopping was Carl's grip on her hand. He'd gotten slightly ahead of her now without her even realizing, so she pushed herself fast and caught up with him so they were side by side.

"Need to hide," she breathed out, hoping he could hear her voice amongst the rustling of the foliage as they pushed through it. "Can't keep running."

"Just a little further," he wheezed.

He could probably see better than she could right now, so she had to trust his judgement. They couldn't just hide anywhere.

"Over here!" he hissed, suddenly pulling her way off her intended course and causing her to stumble.

It took her a moment to realize that he was shoving her into a bush. A bush? Was he absolutely serious? She winced a bit as the sharp twigs cut at her arms and face, but quickly recovered and stared blankly at him for a moment as he climbed in the bush with her, finding his own spot right next to her and becoming very still.

"A bush are you stupid?!" she exclaimed in a hushed whisper.

"Exactly. This spot is too obvious," he murmured, turning his fluorescent blue eyes to her. "We just need to wait long enough for them to lose our trail."

"But what if it's obvious enough for them to look?"

"Shh!"

Every muscle in her body became tense and still. She could hear shouting that was becoming closer and closer to their location. Her eyes swiveled to the figures of one of the men that appeared, his hand wrapped tightly around a small handgun. She couldn't really make out his face without moving her head up to get a better look, so she just watched his body move cautiously through the growth.

"I don't see them! I think they got away!"

"You sure?"

"I don't know they're gone!"

All she saw were the man's legs now as he poked around the area. He was getting closer and closer to where they were hiding and he breath hitched in her throat as he stopped in front of their bush. If this guy found them, she was so going to feel Carl to the walkers. She remained completely still as he hovered in front of the bush for a moment before turning away as another man came into view.

"Joe wants us all back at the parking lot."

"Alright I'll meet you there. Just wanna look around real quick."

"Don't be too long."

They weren't clear just yet. It was another agonizingly long ten minutes before he went out of sight and another ten minutes before she decided that they were clear. Slowly, she pulled herself out of the branches that caught on her skin and stood up, letting out a shaky breath and drawing her hair back behind her ears. Now they had to get back to the house.

"Told you so," Carl muttered, moving ahead of her and scanning the area.

Riley rolled her eyes and watched him for a moment. She was surprisingly not irritated with his quip, but his idea _had_ worked so she wasn't going to complain about it.

"We need to head back to the road. If we tried to find our way through the woods, we'd probably get lost," he said, looking back at her for a brief second before turning his gaze back on the trees.

"Yeah," she agreed. "We just have to be careful not to run into that group. They could be hanging around anywhere."

"Yeah, I bet you didn't count on me still being here."

She gasped as strong arms grabbed her tightly and a knife was suddenly digging into the soft tissue of her throat. Beads of blood flew down her neck and her eyes jumped up to meet Carl's as he spun around, pointing his gun at the man's face. Her heart began to race and it pounded hard against her ribcage. She should have known. It had been way too easy. The metal of her gun that rested between her hip and the waistband of her jeans was suddenly gone and she knew that the only other weapon she had on her was...the knife hidden inside her jeans. And this guy didn't seem to notice. Idiot.

"Put the gun down, kid. Unless you want her to lose her pretty little head," the voice behind her growled, the knife digging further into her neck and causing her to stiffen.

Carl's fingers slackened and the gun fell to the dirt with a soft _thud_. "Riley..."

"You shut up and start walking!"

She was shoved forward by the man and both teens began to walk slowly. However, Riley wasn't going to go through with this willingly. She had the knife in her jeans and she wasn't one to just give up unless there was good reason. If this man could be distracted for just a moment, she could slip it out and get free.

The three walked in silence for a minute before the Carl broke it. "What do you want with us?"

"What do we want with you? Oh there's _plenty_ of things. But I can't spoil the surprise."

His voice hovered by her ear and she shuddered, not liking the way what he was saying sounded. Her jaw tightened and she looked over to Carl, who'd stopped completely to glare at the man.

"I never said stop, kid! You better start walking or I slit her throat!"

"Just tell us what you want!"

They were arguing. He was distracted. This was her chance. As subtly as possible, her fingers slipped just inside the waistband of her jeans and in one quick, fluid motion, she pulled out the little pocket knife and clenched her fingers around it. More pressure was suddenly applied to her neck and she shied away from it, pressing her back into the chest of her attacker to try and get as far away as possible from the blade of the knife.

"Look, you're being selfish. The girl's getting uncomfortable."

She could hear the grin in his voice, but he didn't know what was going to happen to him in a few minutes... Vibrant blue eyes jumped up to the brown-haired boy across from her and she caught onto his gaze, staring hard for a moment before her gaze flickered down to her hand, the handle of the knife just barely poking out from her fist. The understanding jumped across his expression for a split second and she nodded slowly. With a huff, he started to walk again and she and their attacker followed suit. If she attempted to stab him now, he could still hurt her. She needed another distraction - something that would cause him to loose his grip on her.

Suddenly, Carl tripped and fell to the ground a pace behind them and she grinned wickedly. Perfect.

"Get your ass off the ground, kid! Keep walking!"

And as the man reached behind him to grab him by the collar of his shirt, his grip on her loosened. Now was her chance. Flicking the knife open, she thrust the blade backwards into the soft part of his abdomen, then spun in his grasp, her eyes narrowing as she twisted the knife sharply in his side. The knife he was holding slipped from his fingers as he cried out in pain and she lifted a foot, pressing it to his stomach and pushing him roughly as she pulled the knife from his flesh. He stumbled backwards onto the ground and using all of her strength, she kicked him in the head, causing him to black out immediately. Her blood-splattered hands shook slightly as she wiped the blade off on her jeans before tucking it away into her pants. She then bent down and took her gun from his belt and searched the rest of his pockets for anything useful. Another gun resided in his belt on his other side and she found a few loose bullets in his shirt pocket. Not much else on him. Standing back to her feet, she wiped her hands on her shirt and looked over at Carl.

"Nice improv," she commented. "Grab your gun, we shouldn't be here too long."

He disappeared for a moment and while he was gone, she slid her backpack off her shoulders and pulled out the half-empty water bottle. After exerting herself, she was feeling a little faint. The cool water slid down her throat and felt refreshing and it woke up her senses. She glanced back as he came back and she stuffed the water bottle back into the backpack and hoisted it onto her shoulders.

"Alright, let's go," she said, starting forward.

But his hand wrapped around her forearm, pulling her to a stop. "Wait. I just...how did you not panic back there? You knew what to do. You knew he missed the knife and you knew exactly when to... How?"

Riley's brow puckered a little and she pursed her lips, eyes wandering to a few trees just beside his hear before she brought her gaze to meet his curious blue one. "Experience. Everyone panics. Every single time. It's about fighting against your inner panic so you can think clearly. Because if you can't think clearly, you're dead."

That was the one thing she would remember from her father always._ Don't let your panic control you. Push it down. And then figure out how to keep going._  
She had to put that into practice more times than she could count.

"We need to get moving," she said, redirecting his attention to the more pressing matter at hand.

He nodded quickly, letting go of her arm and starting back in the direction they came. The trek back was pretty quiet. Only small animals scurrying about interrupted the silence and it wasn't too long before they got back to the road. Instinctively, she crouched down in the brush, eyes sweeping over the area to see if Joe and his goons were still hanging around. As soon as she heard the voices, she ducked down further into the foliage, pulling Carl with her.

"You sure they're the ones?"

"Positive."

"I don't know if it's worth it, Joe. They're a coupla kids. We're wasting our resources. They'll die anyway."  
"But we need 'em. They've gotta pay, you know that. Now I don't want to hear any more arguments. We split into two and regroup back here once we've swept the area. Remember, we need 'em alive."

What did that even mean? Why did they even need the two of them? It wasn't like they did anything to them...

She peered up over the leaves of the bushes and spotted one of the groups heading back toward the strip mall they were in before. The other group was headed back into the woods with them, but they were far enough apart not to be noticed. Still, she kept pretty low until the crunching of leaves couldn't be heard anymore and she risked another peek at the group that wandered toward the strip mall. They were headed around back, which gave she and Carl the perfect opportunity to go.

"Now," she whispered, peeling away from the leaves and stepping out onto the road.

Her footsteps were cautious, but quick and he kept pace with her easily. Her gaze darted around the environment until she was sure that they couldn't be following and she then brought her gaze onto the black road in front of them. It stretched out for quite a while before they were back at the place they'd met. The bodies of the eaters from earlier were still in the street and the others were still surrounding the buildings. She kept an eye and ear out for any signs of Rick and Michonne, but didn't stop as they circled around the building, back to the train tracks. There weren't any signs of the two adults on the way back to the farm house besides the footprints engraved in the dirt from the other day.

"I know those guys," Carl said quietly. "At least I think I do. A few days ago, my dad, me, and Michonne were in a little neighborhood. Michonne and I went to look for supplies. When we got back, there was a group raiding the house we were staying in. My dad said he had to kill one of them. They're mad. Looking for us."

Well that was just great. Another thing that they had to worry about. If it was revenge they were looking for, they weren't likely to stop until they got it. "We'll have to keep an eye out," she murmured.

The sky was turning a soft shade of crimson as the sun dipped down below the horizon and the trees cast haunting shadows down around them. Time to pick up the pace. They really needed to head back to the stream and get some more water because the bottles they had were practically empty. That meant more walking.

"We need more water," she said quietly, balancing atop the rusty railroad tracks as she walked.

"I know...we'd better hurry. It's not a good idea to be out much after dark. Especially with those guys trying to find us," he returned.

Riley nodded, stepping down off the tracks and picking up a slightly quicker pace. It may have been getting darker, but the heat was still boiling her skin and she was sure Carl wasn't any better off. By the time they reached the creek, it was getting hard to see, so they had to be extra careful. Too much noise or any gunshots would reveal their location to anyone nearby. They just had to make sure to listen more carefully because the woods were a lot more quiet at night. Footsteps would be easier to detect and growls of the eaters breaking through the eerie silence would be louder.

The two of them drank as much as they could before filling up the bottles again and beginning the trek back. Both of them kept very quiet and she strained to hear anything out of the ordinary. There were a few times they had to stop and take a look around, but they were just quick rustles that were most likely squirrels or small animals. No growls or snarls emanated from the woods, but there was no telling when one would appear.

The large field of grass was a lot harder to maneuver in the darkness, but the two of them made it to the house before long.

"I can tie off the door and block it in case they find us. Go sit down on the couch," he said, his blue eyes practically glowing in the low light.

"I can help-"

"No. Go sit down."

She was taken aback by his resistance to her attempts at helping, so she reluctantly took a place on the couch in the living room. As soon as she sat down, she practically sank into the spot and it was when all the exertion from the day hit her hard. She had time to take in her aching feet and sore muscles. And that nasty cut on her forehead was throbbing viciously. It was bothering her earlier, but she did her best not to notice it and her mind was too busy to take in all of this. However, now when the dangers weren't chasing her or holding a knife to her throat, she had the chance to let her mind wander and the pain was hitting her full force. Her eyelids were already heavy, but she fought to stay awake.

There was a lot of back and forth movement from the hallway and then the sound of something being pushed across the floor. Once the sounds quieted down, Carl entered the darkened room and stopped in front of her, a tube of what looked like toothpaste in hand.

"I found some antibacterial cream in the cabinet. There's barely any left, but I think I can get enough out to use on your forehead," he said quietly. "The kitchen's a bit brighter. Come on."

So that's what his plan was. Riley frowned a little to herself, but stood anyway, heading to the kitchen after him. She was perfectly fine patching up her own cut by herself, but she was too tired to make a big deal out of it. There was already a make-shift bandage set out on the counter with a rag beside it when they got to the kitchen and she gingerly lifted herself up onto the counter to sit.

"Is it...really bad?" she asked, watching him set the tube down on the counter and scoop up the rag.

"Uh...kinda. It's not that deep, though. Just...long and bruised," was his reply. "Can you tilt your head down a little?"

She hesitantly obeyed, blowing out a sigh as he reached up to drag the damp cloth across the cut. From the moment the pain erupted, she told herself that she was not going to show it. Not one bit. She bit down on her tongue and attempted to distract her mind with thoughts of what they were going to do in the morning and how they were going to try and find Michonne and Rick. There were miles and miles of woods and roads to search. This seemed to do the trick until he started applying the cream. Her breath hitched in her throat and her face twisted into a pain-filled expression as soon as it touched the wound.

"Sorry," he muttered as he dabbed it around, pulling away slightly and using the cloth again, but this time on the very small cut on her neck.

With the rest of the cream on his finger, he wiped it across the smaller cut, which merely stung a little. Finally, he took the bandage, which was most likely a piece of torn clothing, and wrapped it snugly around her head, covering up the larger cut. She pushed herself off the counter, feeling a little bit better. Her gaze flickered over to him and she nodded slowly.

"Thanks," she breathed, shuffling away from the counter and running a hand through her tousled hair. "I'm guessing you're hungry?"

"Definitely. We didn't eat anything for lunch." He laughed a little, sliding the backpack off her shoulders that she forgot was there.

"What do we have left?"

He slipped open the front zipper and scooped out a couple of things she hadn't noticed before. Old beef jerky, crackers, a bag of chips, and a couple other snacks. Her brows knitted and her eyes locked with his. He was grinning.

"Where did you get these?" she asked, pulling one of the bags of jerky from his hands and looking over it.

"I snagged some stuff when you went down. Just whatever I could grab before I had to take that walker out and save you."

Riley's first instinct was to grin too. Because they had evaded death by just a hair and he still managed to grab some food along the way. That took guts. And some skill. However, her brain processed a second after she grinned that he made her out to seem like a damsel in distress and she scowled, giving him a whack on the arm with her hand.

"You didn't have to save me. I can save myself."

"Ow!" Carl viciously rubbed the spot she hit him, the grin still present on his lips. "You looked like you were drunk. You would've totally fallen over any moment if I hadn't come to the rescue."

And then his grin turned into a smirk and she glowered at him. She knew that if it hadn't been for his help that she probably would have gotten bit, but in no way, shape, or form did she need to be rescued.

"And the way you were clinging to the back of my shirt like it was a lifeline... You _never_ needed me to rescue you." His voice was sarcastic, but not in a nasty way like it had been before when he used it. This time, it was more light and playful. That still didn't make her any less irritated with him.

"I'm eating in the other room." With the bag of jerky in hand, she turned on her heel and slipped away to the living room.

"Just holler if you need rescuing!"

She rolled her eyes, but couldn't hold back the ghost of a smile.

* * *

**A/N: So yeah. I updated. Sorry it's been so long. I had next to no ideas for this chapter when I first started writing it, so it was a lot of piecing together ideas as they came to me, so hopefully it's not too bad! But yeah, Riley and Carl ran into Joe's group. There's gonna be some fun stuff with them. This will all tie in with a good majority of the main plot, but there will be some changes to make it a little more fresh instead of just following exactly to the storyline. And speaking of the show, dang this season has been so good! I won't give away any spoilers for anyone not caught up, but it's been pretty eventful, especially that premiere. As always, I thank you amazing readers for leaving those wonderful reviews and following and favoriting! You guys really are awesome and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! **


	5. Plans Change

"Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it." - Robertson Davies

* * *

**Chapter 5: Plans Change**

Voices. And loud booming. That was what reached Riley's ears when she first awoke. Her brain that had just been fuzzy and fogged with sleep was now awake and frantic. Voices? That wasn't good... Sweeping her disheveled hair over her shoulder, she glanced down at Carl, realizing he hadn't awoken yet. She aimed a light kick at his back with her shoe before making her way toward the window and peering out between the cracks. Her stomach churned at the sight going on just outside the door.

The wind was blowing fiercely, causing the tall grass to sway back and forth. The sky swirled with different shades of grey and thick droplets of rain started to pound against the glass pane. A rather large group of people, maybe ten, attempted to defend themselves from something that was in the grass and all it took was a rotting hand emerging to reveal exactly what the threat was. Eaters. In the end, it was always eaters. At least they were more predictable than human beings, which was why she was so nervous about the group just outside the door, pounding furiously on the wood to try and knock it down. She and Carl had to get out now.

"Get up _now_!" she hissed, turning around to face the slumbering boy on the cushions and whacking him in the head with his hat that was resting beside him.  
Without waiting for an answer, she hurried across the room, shoving things in her bag and going back and forth between different rooms to collect the few things they'd left hanging around. Another loud boom of thunder echoed, vibrating through her bones and making her cringe.

"Riley!"

She rounded the corned, ramming into Carl and quickly reaching out to the door frame to steady herself. "Shhh! We have to get out of here right now. I already got our stuff."

Her blue eyes widened when the window suddenly shattered and she grabbed his arm, roughly yanking him toward the kitchen as shouting voices filled her ears. Shoving her backpack on her back, she stopped at the window, hauling it open just enough to get out. She then shoved him forward.

"Go!" her voice came out in a hushed whisper as scuffling and the voices grew louder.

He didn't hesitate a second and as soon as he was outside, she slipped out, landing firmly on the ground. Wet drops slapped against her face and she was soaked within seconds, but there wasn't time to worry about the rain. The group was definitely not the one they ran into yesterday because there were women, but that didn't mean they wouldn't be hostile. She and Carl started to the woods at a quick pace, but he stopped suddenly.

A loud, piercing scream sounded out but was quickly drowned by the thunder and she grimaced, shooting a glance over at him as he looked back and then looked right into her eyes with his frantic, vivid blue gaze.

"Riley, we have to help them!" he shouted, grabbing onto her arm and tugging her back toward the house but she dug her heels firmly into the ground.

"No! We can't go back there, we don't know these people! They might hurt us!" She gave him a hard yank back in her direction.

And then he gave her a look. A look that made her feel like the bad guy. And for a moment, she felt bad, like she was corrupting him. He wanted to help and she was saying no. However, seeing a walker limp out of the brush made her snap out of it and she gave his arm a huge tug, causing him to stumble a few steps her way.

"We can't, Carl! We have to go!"

He looked at her for a good long moment, his expression hardening before he picked up a run, dragging her further into the woods. Letting go of his arm, she wiped her soaked hair from her face and picked up her speed, hands coming to rest on the straps of her backpack. They only ran until they couldn't see the house anymore and then they slowed their pace to a walk. The trees provided decent cover from the rain, but there was still plenty of it to keep them soaked. Now they were stuck wandering in the woods until they could find their way out. Who knew how long that would take?

Riley's gaze darted over to Carl and she pursed her lips, noting his impassive expression. There was a thick tension in the air that wasn't just a result of the raging storm around them. Bringing it up would be completely stupid. It wasn't a good idea right now, especially so soon after everything happened, but she found herself wanting to talk about it and explain herself. But what was there to explain? That she had trouble trusting people? He already knew that and she had a feeling that it wouldn't suffice. Delving further into her memories and reasoning wasn't something she exactly wanted to do.

After everything that happened to her and her family, talking about things wasn't something she liked to do. Carl was different. He seemed more open to talking. He was the opposite of her. Maybe a few similarities here and there, but he was still a lot different.

His gaze suddenly turned to her and he caught her eye, staring for a brief moment before she quickly broke eye contact._ Come on, Riley. Just talk to him. Both of you need clear heads and this is just getting in the way._ Deciding to stop being stubborn for once, she abruptly stopped, crossing her arms over her chest as the rain chilled her to the bone.

"Carl...," she said slowly, blinking droplets from her eyelids and looking at him as he stopped too. He didn't speak, just adjusted his hat with his hand and waited.

"We don't know what type of people they were. What if they hurt us after we helped them?" she tried.

"But what if they didn't? They could have helped us find my dad! You're not even trying to look for them!"

"There was still that chance that they wouldn't! You can't just trust everyone you come across!" Her voice rose slightly, frustration rising in her throat and forming a lump.

"And _you_ can't dismiss everyone just because you have trust issues!"

Riley's eyes darkened and her muscles got tense. "I have a lot of good reasons not to trust everyone we come across."

"Then tell me! Tell me why you can't trust people. You trusted me. And my dad. Why us and not them?" He took a small step closer to her, eyes searching, wanting, desperate for something from her. "Riley I'm trying to trust you. I don't want to be alone, but I need to know you trust me too."

How could he? _How could he even bring that up?_ Why did he have to get into her head? He was so open with his emotions that it made her head swirl. She couldn't bring herself to even _think_ about telling him that she might trust him and here he was spewing it out as if it was nothing. But he was right. Maybe she didn't want to admit it out loud. Maybe she was trying to deny it. _He's just trying to get information out of you. Don't fall into that trap. Just let this go._

He stared at her for a moment longer, his lips slightly parted and eyebrows knitted together. The air grew heavier and more constricting with every passing second until he let out a noise of disbelief and turned away.

_Damn it, Riley. You screwed up again._

"Wait." She quickly jumped in front of him, stopping him from going any further. How was she supposed to put this in words? Letting out a shaky exhale, she looked up at him, keeping her expression a little hard. "I knew you and your dad weren't like the others...because of _you_. A...while back my group...ran into some Hunters. They were monsters. They killed people who were too weak. If you did something wrong, they killed you. They..._used_ women. And no kids allowed because they were too weak. A _burden_. I knew you and your dad were okay because of _you_."

His expression immediately softened and no words escaped his lips for a long while. She had seen enough murder and lying and broken trust to know what people were like. And yet she still found herself with a person by her side. She tried to stop it, to distance herself from the living, but it never seemed to be possible. Her eyes wandered around the trees for a moment before she forced herself to meet his gaze with a look. A look that clearly said: _I'm trying._

"I didn't know-" he started, only to be cut off by herself.

"Let's just keep going."

She didn't want to hear him apologize for getting irritated with her. She had heard it too many times by now and it was always the same: no real meaning, just there because they felt bad and wanted to make themselves feel better.

Carl nodded slowly, holding her gaze for a moment before lowering it to the ground and beginning to walk. The rain was still coming down thick and hard and a glance up at the sky revealed that it wasn't going to stop anytime soon. It had to rain the day that a bunch of strangers decided to show up to the house they were staying in. She had to admit, that by the time the rain started to slow, she was shivering and her teeth chattered viciously.

Riley looked up at the sky, seeing that it was beginning to brighten slightly. Maybe only another twenty minutes before the storm passed. That was the great thing about Georgia. The storms come and go pretty quickly, even if they were wild. It was sure to heat up once it stopped raining, so she wouldn't have to wait very long before it was warm again.

Her eyes wandered over to Carl to see if he was suffering from the chilly rain as much as she was. It was hard to tell at first, but she could see the light trembling of his muscles as they tried to warm his body up. This whole thing must have been tough for him. She hadn't really thought of it till now, but watching him trying to hold back shivers with exhaustion layered on his face reminded her. He was used to being with his dad. Sure he was a lot tougher than a lot of the kids she met, but he still had people he cared about. He was probably worried about them and they had so many close calls that it was probably wearing him.

She had been away from her family and people she cared about long enough to adjust to the wear. The wear still affected her, but it took a little longer to get down to her core.

Sudden movement up ahead caused her to pause and her eyes narrowed. Didn't seem to be a walker or a person... Slowly, she got a little closer, gesturing for him to follow after her. The trees thinned out and a rushing river appeared. Her lips parted slightly and she glanced over at Carl, eyes wide. The current seemed quite strong, but as long as they avoided actually going in the water, they could use it to fill up their water bottles.

"We should stop here for a bit to eat," he suggested. "It looks safe around here and I'm pretty hungry."

Riley nodded, shrugging the backpack off her shoulders and bending down to open it up. It was pretty wet, but the food inside was sealed so it wouldn't get moldy. Unfortunately, the clothes she had inside were soaked, but they'd dry with time.

Pulling out two bags of chips and the water bottles, she handed one of each to him and settled down in the grass with her own. She tore open the chips, which were barbecue flavored, and began to munch on them. Thank goodness Carl was able to get them back at the little store. Otherwise, they would only have a can of carrots left. Now, they still had that can of carrots, a few more bags of chips and a couple of protein bars. It would last them a few more days at the very least, but they should still start thinking about food again. All she had left was four bullets and she was sure Carl was probably running low too, which meant hunting might not be the best idea.

After a long silence between the two, she decided it would be a good idea to bring this up. "So we have enough for a few more days, what are we going to do after that?"

He finished chewing up a chip and turned to her. "I don't know. We could try hunting. Don't know how good I'll be. I know a little bit. A few traps and such, but that takes time and we'll have to find a place to set up a camp or something until the traps catch something."

"Wait you know how to trap and you haven't said anything about it?" If he knew how to trap, then they could have gotten a lot more food the last few days they were at the farmhouse.

"We didn't really need it at the time and I guess I just...forgot." He shrugged, plopping another chip in his mouth.

Riley unscrewed the cap off her water and took a long gulp. "Guess we'll just have to find some place to stay, then. We might not find something today. We'll have to take turns watching while the other sleeps. We got lucky with that farmhouse. I don't know how lucky we'll be from here on out. Luck always runs out."  
He sighed a little, biting down on his chapped lips and nodding. "So should we try and head back the way we came? I...just think the best chance we have of finding my dad would be to stick around that area."

She wiped the barbecue flavoring from the chips onto her pants and crumpled up the empty bag. "I guess we should probably do that. If we're going to have any chance of finding them, it would be there. But we should probably stick to the woods for now. We don't know anything about those two groups. We need to stay away from the farmhouse and staying in the woods is the best way to keep away from the other group that tried to bring us with them."

"Alright... Do you think that one group...has my dad?" He stopped eating for a moment, locking his gaze with hers.

Her eyes lingered on his for a few moments before they wandered over to the river. "I don't know. But we have to be careful. We don't know if they were lying or not."

"Yeah I know. I just...was thinking about it..."

"It's...possible," she said slowly after a moment. "But we should be trying to stay away unless there's evidence to prove they're with them."

He nodded slowly, gaze dropping down to the ground for a moment before he finished up his chips. She slid the backpack on her shoulders and took a long sip of her water, emptying the bottle and then heading to the edge of the river so she could fill it up. Droplets sprayed up into her face and she squinted as she leaned down to let the water run into the bottle. She kept a firm grip on it because if she even loosened her grip a little, it was sure to go flying down the river. There had to be some sort of water fall nearby, or it wouldn't be rushing as fast as it was. Once the bottle was full, she slipped it into her backpack and waited for Carl to come over and fill his up.

He appeared next to her a moment later, downing the rest of his water to make enough room for more. Crouching down, he leaned over the water to fill the bottle up. She noticed just a second too late that his shoe was slipping.

"Carl!" she shouted as he tumbled into the whooshing water.

_What do I do? What do I do? I have to go in there after him! Shit._ Her hands fumbled with the zipper on her backpack as she zipped it up and then she quickly tied the ends of the straps together so it would stay on her back. Frantic blue eyes jumped over to where she last saw him in the river, but he was gone.  
She started sprinting along the edge, her thudding heart beats getting faster with every step she took. A flash of brown caught her eye and without hesitation, she jumped right into the water.

As soon as she hit the surface, she realized how much she underestimated the current. Her body was jostled roughly around the rocks and her head went completely under the water. She thrashed around in and attempt to surface and was able to for a brief second. That second was long enough to spot something being dragged down with her. Carl's hat. Her hand shot out and her fingers latched onto it just as she was pulled under again. She opened her eyes as best as she could, but every time she rammed into another rock or spun around in the water, she was forced to close her eyes and struggle to bring her head above the surface. Her lungs felt like they were tearing apart inside of her the longer she stayed under and the one word that continually screamed in her mind was _oxygen_.

The river got shallow enough at one point for her to kick herself up to the surface and she took in a gasping breath of air. She had to get to Carl, wherever he was. She was_ not_ going to let him drown on her. _Not today._

And that's when she started free falling.

Her body slammed into the water again like she was falling on concrete and her determination faltered as her skin stung from slapping against the water. It was only when she saw Carl's body floating next to her that the determination came rushing back in waves.

Reaching out, she grabbed onto his shirt, pulling him toward her and forcing her head above the surface. Her body wracked with violent coughs that excreted the water residing in her lungs as soon as she tried to take a breath. The current was now practically nonexistent so she was able to pull him toward the edge of the river despite her coughing fit. Droplets of water clouded her vision, but she was able to make out the blurred green grass and she heaved his limp body onto the shore before pulling herself out fully. Every muscle ached and her chest throbbed painfully every time she took in a breath. So this was what almost drowning felt like...

Riley curled up in a ball for a brief second, shaky breaths entering and leaving her lungs at a rapid rate. She nudged Carl with her foot, but when he didn't respond, she scrambled closer to him, shoving him on his back. His eyes were closed and his mouth partially open, but his chest wasn't rising and falling. _Dammit he's not breathing!_

What was she supposed to do? She had no experience with any of this and the only thing she could think of doing was chest compressions, but she didn't even know how to do that. Everything was jumbling in her mind and she couldn't think straight, but she wasn't going to sit around until he died.

"Screw it," she muttered through gritted teeth, shoving his hat out of the way, balling her fists, and positioning them right below his ribcage on his stomach. "You're not dying today, Sheriff's Deputy."

She began to push down on with her fists rapidly in attempt to try something, _anything_ to help keep him alive, but she knew the instant she decided to do something that it wasn't going to work. There had to be something she could do. She didn't want to just sit around and wait for him to die. He _wasn't_ going to die. She just...she had to do something. The time was ticking away fast and if she waited too much longer, she was sure he would never breathe again.

"You look like you could use some help."

* * *

**A/N: okay I know cliffhanger sorry! I just felt like it was a good place to cut off and it'll leave me more room to expand on what's going to happen in the next chapter. Yes, this chapter was a bit shorter than usual, but I didn't want to throw in a bunch of filler stuff. From here on out, I'd say buckle your seat belts because the ride has just begun. Anyway, thanks a ton to you readers out there for reading and reviewing and following and everything. It means a lot and I'm glad you guys seem to be liking it so far. Hope you liked this chapter! :)  
**


	6. New Friends

_"Friendship is unnecessary to survival. Like philosophy. Like art. It has no survival value. Rather it is one of those things that give value to survival." - C.S. Lewis_

* * *

**Chapter 6: New Friends**

Riley's hand instantly shot out for her gun, but before she could even get close, a woman bent down next to her, shoving her aside and placing her balled fists on Carl's stomach. Teeth chattering, she moved slightly out of the way, blinking rapidly as the woman began to try and push the water out of his lungs. A glance to her right revealed a small group of others. Three to be exact. Two men and another woman.

At this point, she didn't have any choice but to trust these strangers. This woman seemed to know what she was doing and if it saved Carl's life, she wasn't going to complain.

Her attention remained focused on Carl, eyes burning into his head as she waited for some sort of response. Every second was agonizingly long and she was beginning to think it was too late when he suddenly started coughing and a rush of water volcanoed out of his lips. Riley let out a shaky breath and then a short, relieved laugh tumbled out of her mouth.

Carl's eyes widened and he sat up quickly, glancing over at the woman next to him and scooting backwards as he took deep breaths. "Riley...?"

Now that he was alive and not dying, she got the chance to get a better look at these people. The woman that helped save Carl had long brown hair cascading down her back in waves and crystal blue eyes. She looked to be about thirty, maybe younger, it was hard to tell. The other woman that was in their group had messy blonde hair that went down to her shoulders and eerie silver-blue eyes. One of the men actually looked fairly young and couldn't be much older than twenty-five. He had extremely messy brown hair, chocolate eyes, and dimples on each of his pale cheeks. The final man had to be older, but he was still rather handsome with dirty blond hair that was nearly shoulder-length, a stubbly beard, and light blue eyes. Each of them had weapons consisting of various guns and knives.

Now what were they supposed to do? They had helped them and saved Carl's live, but there was always the issue of trust.

"You two by yourself?" The man with the dirty blond hair stepped forward, his brow creased in concern.

Riley exchanged a glance with Carl and then looked back up at this man, slowly nodding her head.

"No group or anything?" the brown-haired woman cut in, slinging a rifle over her shoulder and looking down at the two.

They were so tall from this angle and she slowly got to her feet, muscles taut and stressed as she clenched her fists. None of them appeared to be all that hostile, but that didn't mean anything. Carl got to his feet as well, sticking close enough for their shoulders to brush as they studied this group.

"Not anymore," he muttered.

Riley bit the inside of her cheek, mulling over her next choice of words carefully. "We appreciate the help, but we better get going," she said stiffly, latching onto the back of Carl's sopping wet shirt and pulling him back a few steps.

The brown-haired woman who seemed to be in charge quickly stepped toward them and held up a hand. "Wait. We have a bigger group. Supplies. Food. Other people your age. You can come with us. I know it's hard to trust a bunch of strangers, but you can keep your weapons. We won't take them from you, if it makes you feel any better."

Carl and Riley swapped glances and he grabbed a hold of her shoulders, pulling her aside. "We should go. And I know what you're going to say so just don't talk until I'm done... We can stay there until we find my dad, okay? They're going to let us keep our weapons... And I think if they were going to loot us by now that they would've. She saved me, Riley. Why would they do that if they were going to kill us and be done with it?"

She avoided his piercing blue gaze, breathing in and out slowly as she thought over what he said. If they were letting them keep their weapons, did that mean they underestimated them? It was a possibility and most definitely likely because of their age and size. That was something they could use to their advantage if anything went bad. The woman said that they had a bigger group, which could also be a problem if something happened. It was a matter of weighing each choice. They had food. They had supplies. It was possible for them to know something about Carl's dad...

Catching his gaze, she let out a gentle sigh, nodding her head. "Okay. But we shouldn't say anything about your dad. We can listen into their conversations and get information that way."

A small smile formed on his face and he let go of her shoulders, bending down to scoop up his gun and his hat from the ground. She retrieved hers as well, stuffing it into the waistband of her jeans and following him back over to the strangers.

"We'll come," he told them, adjusting the hat on his head.

The woman nodded, smiling a little. "I'm glad you decided to. I'm Lindsay and these are some of my group." She pointed to the blond guy. "David." Then to the younger brown-haired man. "Henry." And finally to the blonde woman. "Samantha."

They all looked to the two of them expectantly.

"Uh...Carl."

"Riley."

Lindsay's smile grew a little wider. "Well Carl and Riley, we should get moving. It'll be a little walk back to camp and I'm sure you two want some rest after that tumble in the river..."

She gestured for them to follow and Riley hesitated a moment before pushing her legs forward. She and Carl stayed side-by-side as they joined the group and started through the woods.

"How long have you been by yourselves?" David asked, looking back at the two and slowing his pace a little.

She glanced over at Carl for a brief moment, but he seemed to understand what she was trying to tell him: _be vague._

"Dunno. A little while. Hard to tell," he said with a shrug.

"And your parents?" David pressed, a frown stretching across his lips.

Riley cleared her throat and Carl remained silent. David seemed to get the message, even though it wasn't the complete truth.

"I'm...sorry that must have been rough...," he muttered, looking down at the ground and then picking up his pace. _That_ conversation was over...

An awkward silence clung to the air and they walked like that for a little while before she picked up on what Henry was murmuring to Samantha up ahead. They were trying hard to be quiet, it seemed, but Henry wasn't doing a very good job.

"What will Jacob say about them?" he murmured, sounding on-edge and nervous.

Samantha motioned for him to be a little more quiet, glancing back at her and Carl. Riley averted her gaze because she didn't want to be caught eavesdropping. The goal was for the two of them to be discreet so hopefully they wouldn't see them as a threat. If they could use their ages and sizes to their advantage, then they could take them by surprise if something went wrong.

"I don't know. They seem a bit different than the other kids... They were wary of us. Makes me think they've been through a lot. We should keep an eye on them. Jacob's a good judge of character so I'm sure he'll be able to tell. We'll just wait," Samantha whispered.

Riley's nose flared and she bit her lip, tuning the rest of their "whispering" out and focusing on their surroundings. It would be good to see where they were and keep tabs on landmarks. Nothing immediately popped out at her, though. The only thing they were encased in were trees. A typical forest.

Letting out a gentle sigh, she looked over to Sheriff's Deputy beside her to see how he was holding up. He was keeping up and he seemed to be breathing alright, but it was hard to tell. She focused her attention on his chest as it gently rose and fell, but because of his movement she wasn't able to really tell. His features remained relaxed as they walked, but she could see that it was only masking his caution. It was funny how she had only known Carl for a few days and yet she learned how he functioned. She was learning to predict his reactions and how he reacted when in the face of danger.

As she was studying his face, he turned and their eyes connected. She held his gaze for a moment before looking away and glancing up to Lindsay when she suddenly stopped.

"Roamers up ahead. Just a small group. Two of us should be able to take care of them," she said, glancing back at each of them, obviously asking who would be willing to volunteer.

Riley took this opportunity to see how everyone would react. Henry seemed to shrink away at the sight of the dead prowling in the trees. It was easy to tell he wasn't particularly used to killing them or he was at least nervous about it. David immediately volunteered himself with a friendly smile and slipped a machete from his belt. She found it very strange that he seemed so...content and cool. He was friendly and kind and not at all hardened by this world and it intrigued her. She had once been like that...but whether she liked it or not, this world had changed her. She still had to figure out if that was a good thing or a bad thing...

Lindsay and David went up ahead to kill the eaters while everyone else hung back. She couldn't see the two too much through the brush so she turned her attention back to Samantha and Henry. The latter cringed at the sound of the dead being stabbed through the head while the former remained cool and collected. Henry had some serious fear issues with these things.

Feeling a hot gaze on the side of her face, she glanced to her left to see Carl looking at her with a bit of a smirk on his lips. He'd noticed too. She smirked back at him and then looked up to see David and Lindsay returning.

"Come on. Camp's just up through here," she said, motioning for them to follow.

They picked up a walk again, passing through the graveyard of walkers they'd just made. She stepped over the bodies, keeping her gaze focused on them in case any of them turned out to not be dead after all. None of them moved. At least these people knew what they were doing...

Their trek soon came to a halt when they reached the camp. And unfortunately, it didn't look as safe as she was hoping. The only wall that seemed to protect them was a web of barbed wire that extended out from each tree, various sizes of scrap wood, and chicken wire. A few tarps covered up the walls here and there, but it wasn't too hard to see inside and she paused to glance through one of the gaps in the fence.

A few tents caught her eye and she saw a few children playing cards by a campfire. Her eyes jumped back over to Lindsay as they stopped at the gate of the fence and were admitted inside. The walls didn't make her feel safe at all and sleeping here was going to be tough. The sooner they moved on, the better.

"Well this is camp. I know the fences are a bit underwhelming, but we're working on improving them. We started to carve a few logs to put on the perimeter to catch any of the roamers that get too close. There's always someone on guard so if any of them come along, we take care of them before they become a problem," she explained, looking back at the two of them.

Riley kept her expression blank as she glanced around the area to get a better look. There were more kids playing with each other. Two teenagers poked their heads out of one of the tents while several of the adults turned to look. All the stares brought her back to the old world. It was like being the new kids in school.

"Everyone, if you could listen up!" Lindsay started, catching the attention of those who weren't turning to stare. "This is Riley and Carl. We helped them out back in the woods and they agreed to come along here. If anyone's got extra space in their tent, I'm sure they'd appreciate not sleeping in the dirt."

A short silence settled across the camp for a moment and she bit her lip. They were going to be sharing a tent with some of these people? The thought stirred up anxiety in her stomach and she curled her fists around the end of her dirty blue t-shirt.

"They can bunk with us."

Her gaze swiveled over to the two teenagers she initially saw when they entered. Both of the boys looked very similar to each other. They both had blond hair and icy blue eyes, but one of them had more dirty blond hair and the other had more brownish blond. Just by looking at them, they seemed a bit older than she and Carl. Maybe around seventeen if she was guessing correctly.

"David?" Lindsay's eyes swiveled over him as she raised an eyebrow in question.

"Yeah it's fine. As long as the boys behave," David said, giving the two boys a firm glare.

"Alright it's settled then. Riley and Carl, this is Chris and Blake. David's older sons. Why don't you boys show them where they'll be sleeping?" Lindsay said, slinging her rifle over her shoulder and gesturing for them to go.

Riley pursed her lips and nodded slowly, glancing over at the wandering eyes of Blake and Chris.

"Are we going or...?" Carl started, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yeah follow us," Blake said, sweeping his fingers through his brown-blond locks and shoving Chris forward.

Riley followed after them toward a smaller-sized white tent that resided next to a medium-sized blue tent. They stopped at the entrance and she got a peek inside to see that it was pretty messy. Clothes littered the floor along with various books, a few footballs, and shoes.

"This is our tent. Sorry it's a bit messy. We used to bunk with our parents until it started getting too crowded. We have another brother and a sister," Blake said, glancing back at them. "Once we clean it up, there can be room for a couple sleeping places for you. How old are you?"

"Fifteen," Carl said.

"And you?"

Riley blinked and glanced between Blake and Chris. "Same."

"Sweet. I'm sixteen. And Chris is seventeen. You're not related are you?"

She looked over at Carl as he shook his head and to offer an explanation, she said, "we were in the same group."

"So you two are boyfriend and girlfriend then?" Chris piped up, hooking an index finger on one of the belt loops of his jeans.

She nearly choked on her own spit. "What, no!"

Did it look like they were? They _were_ standing pretty close... So close that their shoulders brushed. But she hadn't shot him any looks or said anything that indicated that they were.

"Oh. Well that's..._a relief,_" Chris muttered, a small smirk tugging the corners of his lips as he winked at her.

Riley blinked, a little bit taken aback by how blunt he was being. Normally,_ she_ was the blunt one. She wasn't used to someone being blunt to her. However, before her brain could come up with a snarky remark, Carl's hand wrapped _very_ tightly around her wrist and he stepped in front of her, blocking her from view.

"If you could clean up a part of the tent for us, that would be appreciated," he said coldly, resisting her attempts to break free from his grip. And then, she was being forcefully tugged away from the tent.

"Shit, Carl!" she exclaimed, yanking her arm from his grip and looking at her red wrist before rubbing it lightly.

"That guy is a jerk," he muttered, glancing back toward the tent.

"Yeah, he's a Class-A shithead, but you didn't have to squeeze my wrist off, seriously...," she hissed.

"Sorry... Look maybe we should see if there's another tent available..."

"It's fine, Carl."

"But what if-"

"I can handle myself," she said firmly. "Besides, someone needs to put that asshole in his place..."

He let out a long, irritated sigh. "You're so frustrating."

"Whatever," she muttered, shooting him a glare as she combed a knot out of her hair with her fingers.

A commotion at the gate caught her attention and she glanced over, spotting a small group entering the camp. One of the men in particular, a man with short dark brown hair and tattoos all over his arms, was speaking loudly to Lindsay.

"I told you I didn't want her going out on that run! But you pushed her and she didn't want to disappoint you. And now she's gone! She would have lived if those people had let us in! She would have lived if you _didn't make her go!_" the man shouted before lunging at Lindsay in a blind rage.

David and a few other men quickly stepped in and grabbed onto his arms to keep him from tackling Lindsay, but she didn't even flinch or look like she was afraid of him.

"Jacob, I'm sorry. I didn't want this to happen, but I knew she would be safe with you and she wanted to start helping out on runs. Please just calm down and we can talk this out," Lindsay said softly, her face twisting to sympathy as she watched him slump slightly in the grip of the men that held him back. She moved closer to him. "I'm so sorry, Jacob. I know you loved her."

Jacob's eyes slowly met hers and a sneer appeared on his lips. "If you cared, you wouldn't have let her go," he spat.

Lindsay shook her head and took a step away, frowning as Jacob was released and fell on all fours into the dirt. He got to his feet, glancing in her and Carl's direction. He did a double-take and his eyes locked with hers. His gaze was so incredibly piercing that she couldn't help but feel small and intimidated. A shiver crawled up her spine. There was something in his eyes intense enough to make her feel singled out.

"Who are they?" he growled.

* * *

**A/N: So a little introduction to the new group. Don't worry, Riley and Carl will find their way back to the group eventually...or will they? ;) So basically, Chris is a flirt and Jacob has some anger issues. But why did he give her such an intense look? Was it just anger and sorrow from losing someone he cared about or is there another reason? Haha sorry I'm teasing you guys I'll stop ;P Anyway, I want to thank you guys sooo much for reading and reviewing! I'm really glad you guys are liking the story so far and the support means a ton! So thanks again and I hope you enjoyed! :)  
**


	7. Confrontations

**Chapter 7: Confrontations**

Riley glanced over at Carl, a little bit unsure of what to say to this very angry man in front of them. Luckily, she didn't have to because Lindsay jumped in quickly again, positioning herself between them and him.

"This is Riley and Carl. They were traveling out in the woods by themselves. I brought them in," she explained, her gaze sharp as she stood like a wall to block him from harming them.

She felt his eyes scanning her and she followed his gaze when it locked on the gun stuffed into her jeans.

"You didn't take their weapons?" he asked, voice hostile and stiff.

"I wanted them to feel safe and comfortable here. I know they're not going to hurt us and I'd appreciate it if we could have this conversation somewhere a little more private," Lindsay muttered.

Jacob's eyes flashed but he remained silent as his gaze bored into Lindsay's. The two stared each other down for a moment before a dark smile upturned the corners of his lips. "Fine. We'll _talk._"

Slowly, he turned away with Lindsay on his heels and the two of them headed toward a tent at the other side of camp. Riley had a feeling there would be a lot of shouting and this probably wouldn't be the last they heard of the argument. Looks like their first day here wasn't going so well... One thing that was for sure was that they needed to keep their distance from Jacob. She knew what it was like to lose someone, but he seemed completely out of control.

"We should take a look around," Carl said after a moment, bumping her with his shoulder.

He was right. It would be better to get a look at their surroundings and see what these people had. Before he could say anything else, she grabbed onto his shirt sleeve and pulled him toward the fence. She shot a glance over her shoulder to the tent that Jacob and Lindsay disappeared into before focusing her attention on everything else. It was beginning to get dark so it would be harder to get a good look at the camp, but looking around in the dark was better than not looking at all.

At the center of the camp was a fire pit where most of the children sat around, playing with their toys or reading books. Against all the fences were tents and places set up for people to keep watch. Nearby the campfire sat a few tables that looked like they were for preparing food. Large crates and bins were tucked away underneath them. Other than that, there wasn't much to see, especially with the light fading so quickly.

"Nothing really special about it," Carl murmured.

"No. Not really. I don't like that the tents are right next to the fences though. We'll need to be careful about that," she breathed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Yeah, you're right... I think David wants us to go over. We don't have to though."

He pointed over to the glowing orange of the fire pit where David was gesturing for them to head on over. Both Blake and Chris were visible nearby and she ground her teeth.

"It's okay. We'll be fine. It's too early to head to bed anyway," she hissed, biting the inside of her cheek as she started toward them.

David smiled as they approached. "Hey there. I just want to apologize for Jacob's behavior. He just lost his wife and he's a little on edge... Chris and Blake have your sleeping spots set up and it's going to be a little while until dinner. Thought you might want to come sit with us instead of being by yourselves."

"Oh um... Thank you," Riley said awkwardly, looking down toward an empty log and then taking a seat on it.

Carl sat beside her and her eyes locked with the dancing flames in front of them. The rest of the evening went by in a bit of a blur which consisted of eating dinner with everyone, trying to make conversation, and ignoring the most annoying flirtatious smiles from Chris. Of course, this had the be the guy they were sharing a tent with...

As soon as they were done with dinner, she and Carl headed straight for the tent. She had a feeling she wasn't going to sleep very well tonight so it was probably best to turn in early and get as much interrupted sleep as she could.

Inside, the sleeping bags were set up a little to close to Chris' and Blake's for her liking, so she scooted hers over as far away from theirs as she could. Unfortunately, the tent wasn't big enough for all of them to sleep very far apart, so it was either sleep close to Chris and Blake but away from Carl or the other way around. She would much rather be back to back with someone she trusted rather than an obnoxious flirt who would no doubt use the situation to try and get her to fall for his charm.

The thought made her want to retch.

Just after Riley had moved her sleeping bag, both Chris and Blake entered the tent. Carl stiffened and plopped his sleeping bag down right next to hers.

"Aww didn't like where I set yours up, Riles?" Chris asked with a pout.

"You better shut up if you know what's good for you," she growled, unzipping her sleeping bag and slipping inside of it.

"Ooh, you're feisty. I like girls like that."

"Just ignore my idiot of a brother," Blake interjected, giving Chris a good whack.

She rolled her eyes and slipped inside the sleeping bag, glancing over at Carl to see he had gotten in his as well and he was being more quiet than he usually was. Whatever...

Placing one hand on her stomach and one behind her head, she looked up at the ceiling of the tent, trying not to tell herself that she was tired and needed sleep. It worked for a while - until she could hear the light snores of the two brothers across the tent. They tempted her to shut her eyes and close the world out for a few hours.

Her eyes darted over to Carl's figure as she turned on her side to get a better look at him. He had his back to her, forming a barrier between her and the two other boys in the tent. She shook her head and sighed. She didn't need him to be protective over her. And yet he still was. It was nice to know that they had finally started to form a connection of trust that ran deep enough to prompt him to be protective. If anything, she was probably better at protecting _him_. A small smirk stretched across her lips and she turned on her other side so her back was to him.

But wait...they were trusting each other now... Riley promised herself that she wasn't going to get attached to anyone when she'd met him and his dad and Michonne. And here she was, trusting Carl to cover her back, traveling with him, and even beginning to enjoy his company... This wasn't supposed to happen...  
Grinding her teeth, she mulled over these thoughts until sleep eventually took her in its grasp...

* * *

"We're going."

Riley put her hands on her hips and looked up at Lindsay with a determined expression. Carl cast a wary glance her way.

"We usually don't let the kids go on runs. There are plenty of things you two can do around here to contribute."

"But our old camp let us go on runs. And we're used to doing that. I'd rather come and stretch my legs," Riley insisted.

"If I let you guys come, you'll be treated just like everyone else. You have to contribute. Can you handle that?" Lindsay asked hesitantly after a moment.

"Yeah, we can."

"Alright. Go get some ammo from Justin and meet me back here in five minutes."

Riley turned with a satisfied smirk. "Come on, Carl. Let's go get our ammo."

He followed after her, remaining silent for a moment before speaking when they were out of range from the others. "Why are you volunteering us to go? I thought you wanted to lay low..."

"Well we're trying to find your dad aren't we? How are we going to do that sitting around here? Plus, we'll get free ammo." She shot him a grin before continuing, "besides, we can pretend to struggle a bit so it's not that obvious we know what we're doing."

"Good point... And Riley?" He latched onto her arm and pulled her to a stop, turning her to face him. "Thanks for helping me look for my dad."

She shrugged. "It's not like I have anything else to be doing. Come on."

Riley knew that she was brushing him off a bit more quickly than usual, but she couldn't shoo out those thoughts that had been swirling in her mind from last night. She had to put a little bit of distance between them...

After filling up their gun clips with ammo, they set off out to meet up with Lindsay and the others. They were taking a vehicle this time to the nearest gas station. They only had one working vehicle, a rusty little pick up truck that only had three seats. She and Carl were offered the seats while everyone else sat in the bed of the truck.

The ride itself was rather short, but it helped her get a little bit of an idea of what was around here. So far, there had been that one strip mall, a couple of office buildings, a railroad track, and a little gas station. It wasn't too rural, but not exactly urban either. Resources were probably a bit low, which was a problem. However, it would make it a bit easier to look around for people. They would be where the buildings were and that would give them a better chance at finding Rick and Michonne.

The gas station itself seemed to be clear of eaters on the outside, but that didn't mean they weren't lurking around on the inside.

Lindsay stopped the truck and killed the engine. Riley waited for Carl to slip out of the truck before she did and she scanned the building, not detecting any movement through the grimy windows. It seemed too safe for her liking and it set her on guard for anything that might come out at them, dead or alive.

"Alright we're mainly looking for fuel or any car parts. If you see any food or anything that you could use as a weapon, grab that too," Lindsay instructed, handing each of them a burlap bag for them to put their findings inside. "If you see a roamer, avoid it if you can. If you have to kill it, do it silently unless there's a whole group. Then you call out to us and we'll help take care of them. Let's go."

Lindsay and the other men that tagged along (she was pretty sure their names were Jack and Patrick) split off toward different parts of the gas station. Riley looked over at Carl and he nodded at her, knowing exactly what she was thinking just by the look on her face. They were going to stay together and look.

He started forward toward the closed garage and stopped in front of it. "Wonder if it's open..."

She shrugged. "Dunno, but if it's full of eaters, it would be a bad idea to open it up."

"Yeah you're right. Which is why we check." He smirked a little at her and balled his hand into a fist, knocking against the metal of the garage door.  
Well that was definitely smart. If there were any inside, they would hear them start pounding against the door.

After a few seconds, the growling began and she pressed her ear against the door, trying to listen and figure out how many were inside just by sound. There were multiple snarls, but she couldn't get a good count. Three, maybe four? "There's definitely some inside. Don't know how many, but more than one. We can keep that in mind..."

She turned away, glancing over at Lindsay as she checked the gas pumps for any gas. There wasn't much else on the outside that seemed to be useful, but she noticed scruffy-haired Jack lifting a tire into the bed of the truck.

"Let's go inside. See what we can find," she suggested, moving toward the food mart section of the gas station.

Just glancing inside through the window, it was easy to see that most of the shelves were empty. Some of the aisles were toppled over and of course dried puddles of blood stained the tiled floor.

"Looks clear from out here," Carl muttered, slowly reaching out to open the door.

The two of them slipped inside and she slid her knife from her jeans just in case anything came jumping out. Nothing.

"Okay, we quickly scan the place for anything. You start on that end and I'll start on this end," she said and received a nod from him.

Riley slipped over to the counter and began to sift through drawers and cabinets. The only thing she ended up coming up with was a pack of candy. Starbursts to be exact. Those would be a good treat for later so she stuffed them into her pocket instead of putting them in the bag and continued to search. A few rags on the floor went straight into the burlap bag and she didn't hesitate to add a pair of scissors to the collection. A moment later, the door opened again and she straightened out quickly. Carl popped up from behind an aisle, but he was too close to the shelf and ended up smacking the back of his head on it.

"Are you okay?" she asked, wincing a bit since she knew exactly what that felt like.

Her hand jumped up to feel the closing gash on her forehead just as he spoke in a low grunt, "I'm fine."

"You guys find anything useful?" Patrick asked, scratching the top of his balded head.

"Just a few things here and there," she said with a shrug. "Haven't checked the back rooms yet though."

"Alright, I'll go check those out, you keep looking here."

He disappeared down the hall and she turned her attention back to Carl.

"Are you bleeding?"

He shook his head, running a hand through his greasy brown hair. "Nope."

"Okay good. I think this place is pretty clear, maybe we should-"

A loud curse echoed from the back room and she immediately stiffened. What was wrong?

"Roamers!" Patrick shouted, a gunshot following as he backed down the hallway into the main room they were in.

Riley fumbled with her gun tucked into the back of her jeans and clicked the safety off. He must've barged into the garage where the walkers were before. She was only expecting a few, so when the room started to flood with the dead, she wasn't prepared. The space in the room wasn't large enough for them to fight them off, especially they way they were flooding in. However, both she and Carl made it a point to hold their ground and shoot down each walker than came reaching for each other or Patrick.

The door came crashing open to reveal Jack and Lindsay. They could take all of them on together, right?

One walker grabbed onto Jack and reached down to sink its teeth into his arm. She quickly turned her aim onto the walker's skull, but a shot from Lindsay's rifle beside her sent it flying across the room.

That was too close.

The rest of the room emptied out with their combined efforts and once they were all down, there was hardly any place to walk with all the bodies littering the floor.

"I uh, found something!" Carl shouted, his voice breathless from the exhilarating confrontation.

Riley sucked in a breath and pushed through the squishy, body-covered floor over to him. Following his gaze to one of the dead on the floor, she noticed what he was talking about. The walker had a large "W" carved into its forehead. That was...odd. Someone intentionally captured the walker, carved a letter into its forehead, and then let it go.

She used her foot to kick over one of the other dead and sure enough, there was another "W" right on its forehead. Were all of these marked? Each of them turned over a few more and each result was the same.

"A trap, maybe?" Jack suggested, crossing his arms over his chest.

Lindsay's eyes narrowed. "I don't know. But we should check the garage and get out of here. Just in case. Riley and Carl, go back to the truck."

Riley didn't like being told what to do, but she remembered that they needed to try and lay low, and picking an argument with the head woman in charge wasn't the best way to do that. So she and Carl returned to the truck and climbed inside. They didn't have to wait very long for the others to return and Lindsay wordlessly started the truck. If they were lucky, the whole incident wouldn't mean anything, but luck was hard to come by these days. The only luck they had today seemed to be getting back to the camp in one piece.

The even weirder thing was that Jacob wasn't screaming at them when they got back to camp and actually even offered to help them unload their findings from the back of the truck. Something was definitely going on with him which made her feel a bit uneasy. It was only when he started to look suspicious sneaking around did she feel better. It should have made her feel worse, but him being nice was just _weird._

"Hey Carl," she murmured, eyes still locked on Jacob as he ushered Samantha and Henry into a tent on the far side of camp.

"What's up?"

She turned her gaze onto him. "How do you feel about snooping?"

A smirk jumped to his lips and she grinned wickedly. She'd take that as a good thing.

Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, she shoved her hands in her pockets and slowly made her way across the camp. Carl kept pace with her and she tried to make it seem as thought they were only looking out beyond the fence. When she was sure no one was watching, she gave him a shove toward the back of the tent where they could crouch and listen in and no one would notice.

The two of them crouched side by side and leaned toward the canvas of the tent to try and get a listen in. At first, it was quiet, but then she clearly heard Jacob's voice.

"I know it's them, okay!"

"B-but how can you be so sure, you s-said that you d-didn't see their f-faces," Henry's mumble came quickly after.

"Don't question me, boy! The girl's eyes. I saw them peering through the window when we were banging on the door screaming for help. I wouldn't forget that. There's no way I'm wrong. They killed her. They're the reason she's dead. And I'm not gonna let them get away with it!" Jacob growled.

"It's alright Jacob," Samantha cooed. "We'll make sure that this will go your way. I promise you that. I'll stand by you and so will Henry."

"W-what?!" Henry stammered.

"You heard what she said, boy! You're helping, aren't you?" Jacob hissed.

"Y-yes sir! W-what are w-we going to d-do?"

"I'm going to talk to Lindsay later. If she won't listen, we'll take matters into our own hands. I'll make sure to let you know what's going on," Jacob said gruffly.

"I can keep an eye on them. They won't expect me poking around. They'll think I'm just being nice," Samantha murmured.

"Good, good. Why don't you go find them now? Maybe you can get a confession out of them."

Riley latched onto Carl's shirt sleeve and tugged him out from behind the tent. They needed to put as much distance between them and Samantha as possible. As they were hurrying away, she glanced back to see that Samantha was just exiting the tent. And that was when she rammed right into someone's back.  
Without thinking, she grabbed onto whoever it was as she started to fall. Her eyes squeezed shut as she made impact and she remained motionless for a minute until the familiar, cocky voice of Chris reached her ears.

"Rather cozy, huh? I'm glad you changed your mind, Riles. I knew you couldn't resist me."

Nostrils flaring, her eyelids flew open and she stared down at Chris with disgust. That smug smirk playing on his lips infuriated her and she gnashed her teeth. She leaned over his face, drawing in a deep breath when she saw his smug expression change to something of surprise. It was her turn to smirk because instead of kissing him like he was probably dreaming about, she mustered up as much saliva as she could and spat right in his face.

"Pig," she growled, pushing herself to her feet and brushing the dirt off her jeans.

Blake, who she hadn't noticed before, was holding back snickers and Carl cleared his throat a few times to try and force the laughter away. Chris scrambled to his feet and wiped his face furiously with his shirt, anger glowing in his eyes.

"You little bitch," he snapped, smoothing his hair down.

Riley lunged toward him, but hands wrapped around her wrists like shackles and she only got a few feet before she was yanked back.

"You'll draw too much attention," Carl murmured, his grip on her still firm and unwavering as she struggled.

He was right.

Here they were, supposed to be laying low and staying inconspicuous and she was ruining for all of them just because of an idiot who couldn't keep his mouth off of flirt mode. He wasn't worth the effort. Besides, this was only temporary. They weren't going to stay here forever and soon enough she wouldn't have to see Chris' despicable face ever again.

She stopped struggling and he let go of her wrists instantly. Without another word, she turned on her heel and slipped toward the campfire, drawing in quick, deep breaths to flush the anger out of her body. With every breath, more and more flew out like a river and she sat down on the log next to the crackling fire.

"Anger like that gets you killed," Carl muttered a moment later. "I know from experience."

Riley scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "How can you know from experience? You're still alive."

"I _almost_ died because of it. Just warning you, okay?"

Before she had a chance to retaliate, Samantha came up behind Carl with a polite smile.

"Am I interrupting anything?" the blonde asked, looping her thumbs on her jean pockets.

"No," Riley muttered, digging her heels into the dirt.

"Okay great. I just wanted to see how you guys were adjusting. It must have been scary being out there all by yourself. How long has it been since you've been with another group?"

Carl shuffled over to Riley and sat down next to her, replying before she could, "I dunno a short while."

Vague answers. Good.

"It must be hard jumping from group to group... How did you guys end up in the river yesterday? You're lucky we were there to help. I'd hate to imagine what would happen if we weren't..."

Riley nearly snorted. This woman was so fake it was laughable. "We just slipped in by accident," she said with a shrug.

"Oh that's awful. You weren't running away from anything? Roamers? Or people?"

"Nope."

"You sure about that?" an irritated growl came from behind.

Both she and Carl jumped to their feet to face Jacob, who'd apparently been prowling around. She wasn't surprised since he couldn't seem to keep his nose out of everyone's business.

"I know you two are the ones that left us behind. You could have saved us. And then my wife wouldn't be dead. Don't you lie because I know," he sneered.

"There's nothing you can do about it. Lindsay will never believe you," Carl hissed.

"I don't care what she believes. She's not going to stop me."

Riley's eyes narrowed into animal-like slits. "Do your worst."

* * *

**A/N: Well Riley and Jacob are at each other's throats now! We'll have to see what his revenge will be, hmmm ;) This was a bit of a filler chapter but I promise the next chapter will be more interesting! Anyway, I want to thank you guys soo much for all the feedback and the reviews and everything! I'm really glad you guys are enjoying it and hope you enjoyed this chapter! :D  
**


	8. I'll Do My Worst

**Chapter 8: I'll Do My Worst**

It had been a total of four days since Riley and Jacob's confrontation. Both she and Carl had been waiting warily for some sort of retaliation to come but it hadn't yet, which surprised her a little. He seemed like a man of action but yet he wasn't doing anything to try and get back at them like he swore he would. She had seen him speaking with Linsday a few times after the incident. Maybe she was holding him back. After they had gone at it, it drew attention and Jacob explained himself to the leader. She didn't seem convinced by his story at all and had told him to back off, which only infuriated him more. Since then, he had kept his distance but she often caught him glaring at her from across the camp.

During this whole standoff, Carl had definitely gotten a bit closer to her, which honestly surprised herself. She figured that maybe she let him in a little more because he was the only one she could trust. It was funny how one day she could be so distrusting of a stranger and the next day that stranger was the only person she had trusted. Obviously, they had known each other for quite some time now, over a week or two to be exact, but it still applied because of how hard it was to trust people these days.

Originally, she didn't want to get close to him and she kept telling herself that she wasn't getting close to him and she was only trusting him because she had to. There wasn't much of a choice she had. She could not trust anyone and go off on her own, but there was a stronger chance of survival if she had someone to have her back and Carl happened to be that person. Plus she promised him that she would help him find his dad.

Currently, the two of them were eating lunch. Riley was sitting up on one of the logs by the fire pit with her plate and Carl had taken to sitting on the ground next to her feet, his shoulder leaning lightly against her legs. Both were silent as they ate and no one else was around to talk to them. The only noise consisted of the light chatter of others across the camp or the birds calling softly to one another. It was actually a pretty nice day out and there were no sounds of eaters in the vicinity.

Once she was finished with her food, she set the plate down on the log next to her and looked over at Carl. "When do you think they're going to have another run?"

"Don't know," he said with a mouthful of food, swallowing before continuing, "it's been a little while so they have to have one soon, right? And I'm sure Lindsay will let us go..."

She nodded slowly, brushing a stray strand of hair from her cheek. "We'll go no matter what. The more we look around, the more likely it is to find your dad."

He pulled his knees to his chest and looked up at her. "Thanks, Riley. For helping me look for him."

Biting her lip, she shrugged casually and looked away, feeling his gaze burning into her head. "It's fine."

An awkward silence settled between them before he broke it once more. "Hey, Jason's loading up his gun!"

Her gaze snapped over to the other side of camp where the weapons were usually kept. Carl was right. Jason was loading up his gun and grabbing some other supplies. That had to be a run, right? She jumped to her feet, and he followed soon after. They made it across the clearing pretty quickly and Jason looked over at them with a raised eyebrow.

"Suppose you two want to come along? I'll have to ask Jacob, but get some ammo while I ask," Jason informed.

Wait, Jacob?

"Wait, is Lindsay coming?" Riley asked, confused.

"No. She's got something else to deal with so she asked for volunteers on the run and Jacob volunteered to go," he said, strapping his gun to his hip. "Just wait here, I'll be back."

She looked over at Carl as Jason left and frowned. "We're going to have to be careful."

He nodded and drew in a breath, bending down to the box to get some ammo for their guns. "Riley, if you don't want to go on this run..."

"No. We can't let it show that we're wary of him. Besides, we need to look for your dad."

"But if you're uncomfortable-"

"It's fine," she assured stiffly, glancing up as the truck came rolling over with Jacob in the driver's seat.

He watched her with narrowed eyes before getting out of the truck, moving over to the two of them.

"Heard you wanted to come along," he muttered.

"Yeah, that's right," she confirmed, crossing her arms over her chest. Would they even get to go? He'd probably get all smug and tell them he wouldn't be taking them.

"Fine. You can come along."

Cue the shock.

Her eyes widened slightly and she looked over to Carl, slightly confused.

"You two can sit in the truck bed with Jason. Henry and Samantha have already called the front seats."

And then he turned away, trudging back to the truck to meet Samantha and Henry which she hadn't previously noticed. Wait the three of them were going to be sitting up front? Didn't that seem a little...strange?

Slowly, she made her way to the back of the truck, climbing up inside and sitting down. Carl sat across from her and she narrowed her eyes.

"Don't you think it's a little strange that he's letting us come along? And that the and the two people in on his 'plan' to get back at us are sitting alone in the front seat with no one else to hear what they're talking about?" Carl asked quietly.

She traced her finger along the handle of her gun and looked down at her lap. "It's weird. We'll just have to be careful."

They couldn't talk any more about it because Jason climbed up into the truck with them and plopped down near the back.

"Guess we aren't part of the exclusive club," he joked, leaning over and slapping the side of the truck to signal that they were ready. The truck started up and they were soon out of camp and on the way to whatever town they were headed to for supplies. They didn't even ask where they were going, they just noticed that Jason was getting ready for a run and jumped at the chance to come along.

The ride was a bit longer than the last, but she figured that since the camp was in the middle of the woods that it was going to take longer to get to any sort of town. The gas station had been a lucky break but most other places had to be a ways away since they were so far from civilization. They only passed a few stray eaters on the way, but otherwise it was pretty clear. What was even more surprising was the town that they stopped at.

Complete silence blanketed the place. No birds claimed the sky. No squirrels scuttered about. The town was also rather large by the looks of it and she could even see a school a little ways toward the end of the road. It was eerie and the grin that kept flickering on and off Jacob's face made her feel even more unsettled. All she needed was a look from Carl to know that he was feeling the same way as she was.

"We should split off in groups of three," Jacob started, loading a few shells into his shotgun. "Jason, you can stick with Riley and Carl. I'll go with Samantha and Henry. Once you've got a building searched, meet back here and we'll keep doin' that till it gets late. Let's move."

Riley wasn't sure how she felt about the three of them keeping themselves isolated. But she didn't know whether she would rather stay close to keep an eye on them while risking the possibility of something happening or keeping a distance so they couldn't try anything. Neither option seemed like a good one so it was probably just best to go with the hand that they were dealt.

"I think we can start at that convenience store over there." Jason pointed to a small, run-down little building. "And then we can move up to the bigger buildings."

"Let's go, then," Carl said, pulling out his gun to be ready.

She followed suit, keeping a quick, quiet pace as they headed over to check the place out. Looking through the window, it was hard to tell exactly what was inside since grime coated the glass. They'd have to go in slowly.

Jason opened the door slowly, a light clanging from the bell hanging at the top echoing throughout the room. He paused, looking around and waiting in case any walkers had heard the noise but nothing came out from the shadows. He looked back at the two of them, motioning for them to follow.

They entered cautiously, and she kept her gun raised as the door shut softly behind her. The whole place seemed to be pretty clean and tidy, which was a bit strange, but most of the shelves were empty. Someone had definitely cleaned this place out.

She relaxed slightly as she walked down the small aisles, Carl trailing behind her and Jason up ahead. Something caught her eye and she ducked down, pulling out a small bottle that had been poking out from underneath one of the shelves. It was a sealed bottle of ibuprofen. Definitely a good find.

"Got something," she announced, holding up the bottle for Jason to see. He turned, taking the bottle from her and looking it over.

"Nice find, kid. That'll definitely come in handy."

Riley nodded a bit and turned her attention back to the shelves. As they progressed toward the back of the store, the overwhelming smell of rotting flesh crawled up her nose. She grimaced, poking her head around the corner to see a dead eater lying on the ground. Though there was one thing different about this body. It was cut cleanly in half, from the head all the way down. Her heart skipped a beat and she looked over at Carl, ignoring Jason making comments about how nasty the walkers were. There was only one thing she had seen able to do something like this. A sword. And how many people carried around a sword?

"Do you think it's them?" he asked hopefully, quiet enough that Jason wouldn't hear as he poked around the shelves.

"I don't see who else it could be. How many people do you know that use a sword?"

Relief etched itself on his face and she drew in a deep breath as he spoke again, "they have to be somewhere close. Maybe we can try to slip away and look around ourselves."

She nodded in agreement. "Good idea. Don't know how we'll be able to but we can try."

"This place looks pretty stripped clean. We should head back out, meet back up with the others and see what they've got," Jason interrupted.

"Okay," she and Carl said in unison, which led to a strange look from the man.

She just gave him a shrug and pushed past the both of them, heading back toward the door and slipping outside. The air was a lot cleaner and she didn't realize how musty it was in there until now.

Scanning the road, she didn't see any signs of the others until Henry practically bolted out of the ice cream place across the street. Had to be eaters. He was pretty afraid of them she'd noted from their first meeting. Jacob was next, pulling a body out of the building and depositing it on the ground. Samantha followed suit and she caught the woman's eye, who then tapped Jacob on the shoulder and pointed over to them.

The two groups met in the middle of the road and Jason pushed the ibuprofen bottle into Jacob's hands. Riley looked over at Carl and discreetly motioned with her head to the other side of the road, indicating that now would probably be the best time to try and slip away. As they continued to talk, she took a step back and so did Carl. They were able to get a few feet away and turn around when Jacob noticed them.

"Hey! What're you two doing?"

She bit her lip, turning slightly to face him as he came stomping over. For once, she was lost for words and she ground her teeth together as she tried to come up with a lie.

"I-"

"We just wanted to go sit down," Carl interrupted, "it's pretty hot out. We just needed a break."

Jacob eyed them for a moment. "You've got five minutes."

"We can stay here for a bit, and we'll just catch up to you," she blurted, folding her arms across her chest.

He shook his head immediately. "Not a good idea."

"And why's that? We're perfectly capable of handling ourselves, thank you very much. You're wasting time. We'll be fine."

"Like I said, not a good idea." His voice was more firm and demanding this time, which only sent her more on edge.

"Look, we're not going to go running around and shoot the place up," she said with gritted teeth.

He glared at her, looking like he was starting to lose patience. "You're just a couple of kids. You screw up. You don't know the hardships of survival. And you get people killed."

The breath soared from Riley's lungs. He was still upset, obviously. But before she could even speak, Carl surprised her by speaking exactly what was on her mind.

"We didn't hurt anyone on purpose! You really think we were going to trust a bunch of strangers? We didn't know you weren't going to hurt us!"

And that's when the tension began to rise and the burly man took a dangerous step forward, looking down at the two of them with an intimidating glare. Everyone around them stared in shock at the sudden hostility between the three of them.

"You better watch your mouth, boy," he growled.

Her hand quickly shot out to Carl's wrist and she took a slight step in front of him, puffing herself up and trying to make herself appear a lot larger than she was even though her heart thumped rapidly in her chest and the hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up.

"And you watch who you threaten," she ground out.

Jason quickly jumped in between the three of them, breaking up the little stand-off and trying to calm each of them down. "Ay, no need for this. We're gonna draw all the biters in the area."

Riley took a step back, stumbling into Carl's chest. Jacob turned his gaze away from the two of them an onto the man that stood between them. He shook out his arms and rolled his shoulders.

"Come on. We should start at the school while we're all together," he muttered, turning away and retreating to the others.

She let go of Carl's wrist and drew in a stiff breath, pressing her fingers to her eyes. At this rate, they were never going to find Rick and Michonne. Maybe the best option for them would be to leave in the middle of the night. She'd have to talk to Carl about it when they were alone...

As the others began to walk, she fell in line at the back, her eyes boring into Jacob's back. Henry cast a nervous look at her before falling in line with Samantha. The blonde didn't even look their way and simply followed the others, keeping her shoulders square and head held high. Maybe Carl was right about coming to this run. Maybe it would have been better for them to stay behind today...

After a little trek across the town, they ended up at a medium-sized brick school with the peeling yellow letters spelling out _Nicholas Elementary._ The lawn was clear, but it seemed like the perfect place for eaters to be crawling inside.

"This looks like a good place to split up, make sure everything's clear on the outside before wandering inside," Samantha suggested.

Jacob nodded. "Alright. Sounds like a good idea. Henry, why don't you and Jason head around back, make sure it's clear?"

Jason seemed a bit wary. "Are you sure that's-"

"We can do that," Henry interrupted, trying to keep the shakiness out of his voice.

There was a moment's hesitation before the two broke off from the rest of them and slowly started to make their way around the side of the building. Curiously, Riley moved forward to look through the windows, but they were all boarded up and covered with blankets and curtains. Definitely seemed a bit sketchy...

"Let's make our way inside. Slowly," Jacob said, heading for the door.

"Shouldn't we wait for the others?" Carl asked, wiping his hands on his pants.

"We won't go far."

That sounded _very_ reassuring. The man motioned for them to move forward and he wrapped his fingers around the door, opening it just a crack. Everything was quiet and he motioned for the three of them to enter. Carl went first, every step he made wary and careful. Riley followed after. And that's when Samantha pushed them.

She tripped forward, flying into Carl. The two of them landed in a pile on the floor as the doors slammed shut behind them. Pushing herself to a stand, she leaped toward the door just as Jacob rammed something in the handles to keep the doors from opening. He gave them a wicked smile and she growled, slamming her body into the door to try and get it open.

"You son of a bitch!" she snarled, banging her fist on the glass as Carl tried to wrench the doors open with his weight.

"You asked me to do my worst," Jacob sneered and gave her a mocking wave before gesturing behind her. "Just watch your back."

Her head flung around and she was greeted by one of the largest groups of walkers she'd ever seen and their hungry eyes were fixed on the two of them.

**A/N: I know, it's been forever! So sorry, have had a lack of motivation to write, but I think I'm getting back in the swing of things. So things are looking pretty bad for Carl and Riley right now. They're stuck in a school full of walkers. Just perfect. Thanks so much for all the awesome reviews! Hope you enjoyed and sorry for the slow updates! **


	9. Trapped

**Chapter Song: Carrion Flowers by Chelsea Wolfe (I don't own!)**

**Chapter 9: Trapped  
**

Everything was happening so quickly. That's the way it always ended up happening in life or death situations. No, they didn't go in slow motion. They went in fast forward. Attempting to shove their way back out the door would be suicide. They had to run. That was their only option.

The herd inched closer and Riley glanced around frantically to see where they could even go. To the left resided another hallway that had a few walkers, but if they were quick, they could probably dodge them and keep going. This whole thing was risky. They didn't know how many other dead were in here and they could easily get cornered. But time was running low and there wasn't any time to think this over.

"Come on!" she yelled, starting down the hallway just as a rotten hand reached out for her hair.

As she ran for the first walker in their path, the thumping in her chest grew louder and louder until it was all she could hear. She ducked underneath its outstretched hands, her nose filling with the smell of rotting flesh and the chill from its fingertips brushing her bicep.

Shivers crawled down her spine and she didn't look back as she rejoined Carl's side. Not for a second did the hissing and growling get any more distant. These ones were fast. It must have been months since they'd seen anything alive.

"Where are we going?" he shouted.

"Anywhere but here!"

"I got that much!"

How were they even supposed to know where they were going? They were running away from a group of eaters and they had no idea how this school was set up. They were essentially just running blindly until they could find some other way out of here.

They approached rows of classrooms and she ducked into one of them, skidding to a stop and wrenching the door closed. But a walker's hand was in the way and then a few more reached in through the crack. She pushed all of her weight against the door, but it wasn't enough. She rocked back and forth as they tried to barge their way in.

"Carl, help!" she grunted, looking back at him as he retreated further to the other side of the classroom. What was he doing?!

More force to the door caused her to refocus and she dug her heels into the slippery tile. If they died, she was blaming him... But out of the corner of her eye, she saw him pushing the desk across the room. _Okay. Good idea. Breathe._

Riley dug deeper, a slimy bead of sweat crawling down her neck and the smell of decay invading her senses. Carl was so close...

And then she was shoved roughly to the floor, slamming against it like a brick plummeting into the water. She quickly rolled over, leaping to her feet to get back to the door, but it was too late. Dead started to flood into the room and she and Carl were corned. Trapped in a corner with a mountain of rotting bodies trying to tear open their insides.

She backed up so that she was lined up with him and the two of them started to inch backwards as the walkers stumbled and tripped over the tables and chairs. The only way out was the way they came...

Blue and blue met and she could see the determination in his eyes. And the panic. They had to try this if they wanted to survive.

Slipping her knife out of her jeans with one hand, she reached over and found his hand with her other. They needed to stick together. Live together, die alone - screw that. _Live together, die together._

"Three...," she started.

"Two," he continued.

"One..."

"GO!"

With him in the lead, they made a break for it, ducking and dodging the flurry of blood-tipped fingers and lifeless gray hands. Some she had to shove, others she had to stab in the brain. They were doing alright until they got to the door where many of them were collected. Now they really were trapped. Between two herds. She could barely think straight, but the only trace of open space she saw was at their feet...

"Crawl!" she shouted, letting go of his hand and dropping to the floor.

At this point, she was risking it all. Not like they had much of a choice.

With all haste, she scrambled through the forest of legs, eyes widened with fear as the growling pounded in her eardrums and she was brought sharply back to the past. A time when she was caught in a herd. A time when she had to choose between surviving or family.

Riley's head snapped over to Carl as she reached the very edge. He was out. alive. Not bitten. They actually did it...

Until an eater grabbed onto her leg.

She shoved herself backwards, kicking it in the face and trying to shake it off in a rush of adrenaline and survival instincts. Her hands clawed against the slippery tile beneath her in an attempt to get some traction as she kicked the face off of this thing. Skin started to peel off in thick onion layers, revealing black blood and bone and gore beneath. And then it fell lifeless as a bullet pierced its skull.

Carl bent down to help her to her feet and the two didn't hesitate to start running once more. He kept his gun out as they ran, but didn't fire any shots. A set of double doors appeared at the end of the hallway after they turned the corner and she picked up her pace, bursting through the doors to discover that it was a gymnasium. At least there was another door they could get out of on the other side... Maybe they could lose them that way.

"This way!" she shouted, sprinting straight toward the door and dodging tables as her feet crunched on broken glass.

She slammed into the door at the end of the gymnasium and...

_Smash!_

Her head snapped back to see what was going on and her heart leaped into her throat, threatening to suffocate her at what she saw.

Carl leaned back on the balls of his feet, right hand tucked to his chest as it oozed thick, crimson blood. _Shit, shit, shit..._ She lurched forward, bending down in front of him, her nostrils filling with the acrid smell of his blood. He must've slipped and sliced his hand open on a shard of glass...

Her panicked blue eyes searched the immediate vicinity for anything that she could use to wrap it up, but she didn't see anything at all. And the eaters had finally crashed through the door. They had to keep moving...

"We have to go," she murmured, helping him to his feet as he pressed his palm flush against his chest to try and stanch the bleeding. "I'll cover you."

He murmured something, but she wasn't able to make it out over the hissing and growling and the blood rushing in her ears. She didn't look back, only focused on moving forward. The range of the inhuman sounds behind them was enough to tell her how close they were.

Carl kept up with her despite the blood pouring from his hand. Good. Good. She could barely think straight and she didn't want to lose him because she couldn't focus on more than one thing at a time.

As they turned the corner, she went for the first door. Right now, anything was better than this. The stitch in her side kept reminding her that she needed to breathe and she couldn't ignore his bleeding hand. That needed tending to before they went much further. To her luck, the door flew wide open as she twisted the knob. It was a closet. Janitor's closet. Nothing inside. By a stroke of pure luck, they'd gotten a break.

Riley held the door wide enough for him to stumble inside and she caught a glimpse of the dead before she shut herself inside with him. Her fingers fumbled for the lock and once that was secure, she looked around the room for anything she could use to block the door further. To her right resided a rolling caddy full of different cleaning supplies. Good enough. She rolled it in front of the door as decaying fists started to rap loudly against the door until it rattled.

But she didn't stop. No, she needed to get Carl's hand wrapped. So she groped around the closet in the darkness, ignoring his requests for her to calm down, and tried to find something - anything.

Her eyes were beginning to adjust more to the darkness and she spotted a pile of cleaning rags. She grabbed a handful and swiftly made her way over to where he had sat down in the corner.

"Hold out your hand," she breathed.

"I can do it...," he murmured.

"No, I got it... It's okay..."

He slowly pulled his palm from his chest and extended it out to her. Taking one of the rags, she sopped up most of the blood. The bleeding seemed to be slowing down a bit, which was good, but the cut looked a bit deep. Maybe it was just the lighting, she couldn't tell... It didn't matter much anyway since they didn't have the option of stitching it up.

Once most of the blood was sopped up, she used the left over rags to bandaged the wound, tightly enough to keep some pressure but loose enough to give it breathing room.

"Thanks," he whispered, pulling his hand back to his chest before leaning back against the wall.

"Don't mention it..." She glanced around before settling down next to him, trying to ignore the banging and growling at the door. "How do you suppose we're going to get out of here?"

He shrugged lightly, eyes glimmering in the dark as he looked at the ground. "We just have to wait, I guess. No other way out."

She drew in a deep breath and leaned her head back against the wall. "I'm going to see if there's anything else in here we can use."

"Riley...just take a breath. We'll have plenty of time in here to do that."

She opened her mouth to protest, but she realized he was right. They'd probably have to wait hours before the walkers lost interest and started to wander away. "Okay...okay."

An unsettling silence fell between the two and she stared blankly into the darkness, mind swirling with memories of close calls and loss that branded themselves into her brain. Back there...that reminded her that they weren't invincible. And that no one could be trusted anymore...

"Thanks for not...for not dying on me back there," she murmured, a pinch of humor in her voice. But she was being serious. The last thing she needed was someone else she had come to trust dying on her. It had happened too many times and she wasn't sure if she could handle it again.

"Same goes for you..." He leaned over slightly to bump her shoulder with his and she couldn't hold back a small smile. "Can't believe Jacob did something like that though...Wonder what he's going to tell the others..."

"Probably that we got swarmed or ran off. Something like that."

"Yeah... Of course right when we get a lead on my dad, we have to get trapped inside a school with a whole herd of walkers... Might as well stop looking. Doubt we're ever going to find them now..."

Riley bit her lip, shooting a glance over at him as he turned his head away and let his shoulders sag. He was probably right but...well they _had_ found that sliced up eater. If Rick and Michonne were anywhere, it had to be nearby, right?

"Hey...we saw that eater...It seemed fresh, so they have to be close, right? All we gotta do is wait and then make a break for it. There has to be another way out of this school. We probably passed a ton of exits while we were trying not to get devoured..."

He looked up, raising an eyebrow. "Since when did you become the hopeful one? Thought you didn't believe in hope..."

"Someone helped me to..." Her breath hitched in her throat and she blinked. _What_ had she just said?

Heat flooded up to her cheeks and she looked away, grateful that it was dark in here. Gosh, why was her stomach twisting in knots? Before he got a chance to speak, she cleared her throat.

"So uh, what do you suggest we do to pass the time?" she asked quickly, stumbling over her words as she struggled to regain her composure.

"Maybe we should...uh play some sort of game? Like one of those questions games?"

A questions game? Alright, she could work with that. Better than sitting here after her awkward confession...

"Okay so umm... I remember when I was younger at a party we used M&amp;M's. Each color had a different question attached to it...but we don't have M&amp;M's...Guess we could just ask each other questions? Whatever pops into our heads?" she asked with a shrug.

"Yeah it'll be easier that way. You go first?" He shifted a bit so he was facing her.

"Okay umm...where are you from originally?"

"King County. What's your last name?"

She had almost forgotten that she never told him that. Didn't seem very important when they were running for their lives every five seconds... "Wilson. Have any pets before this?"

He shook his head. "Nah. Parents thought they were too much work. So where is Riley Wilson from?"

"Macon. Not sure where we are now, but it's about an hour or so from Atlanta. Type of music you like?"

"Uh...I like rock. Pop is not bad either. Just depends I guess...So um...how long were you on your own before we met?"

She bit her lip. He was starting to wander into the more personal territory. "About two weeks. How'd your group get separated?"

"We got uh...attacked by another group. It was...pretty crazy. Gunfire and walkers everywhere. We've been looking for the others since... How did you get separated from your group...?" he asked cautiously.

It was like she was hit with a ton of bricks. She knew he had to be curious about this stuff because what else was there to really talk about? All the stuff before the dead didn't really matter anymore. It wasn't like she couldn't trust him either, it just hurt so much to even think about the past.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"No, it's...We were practically starving... And we came across a group of hunters...like the ones chasing us before. They had food. They had shelter. But they had a set of rules. No kids allowed. Apparently, we weaken the group. Slow them down. And my group abandoned me and went with them without batting an eye," she murmured, looking down at her lap and biting down on her cheek until she tasted coppery blood.

She had been _starving_ and _weak_ and drained from losing her family and then she was left to die like she was a freaking unwanted pet. And that's why she found it so hard to trust anyone.

Riley had been expecting him to say something, but he didn't. No, instead she felt the warmth of his palm against hers and the reassuring brush of his thumb across the back of her hand.

After a few more moments of silence, she spoke up again. "We should...try to rest a little bit. Then maybe figure a way out of here..."

He pulled his hand away. "Yeah, good idea."

She slid down on her side, with her back to the wall, and used her arms as a pillow since a real pillow wasn't an option. It was hard to fall asleep with the walkers at the door, but eventually she gave in to exhaustion and drifted off into a light sleep.

When she awoke again, Carl was already up. And he was looking at something on the wall... She rolled over on her back and pushed herself to a sitting position, rubbing her eyes until she felt more awake. A small pile of things rested beside her so she figured he had searched the closet for things they might need. She pushed herself to her feet, coming up behind him.

"What are you looking at?" she asked, forcing back a yawn.

"I found a map of the school. Must've been for the janitor to cart stuff around, but...it tells us where all the exits are," he explained, looking back at her.

"Seriously?" She jumped forward, squinting in the darkness to see the faded map on the wall.

Spotting where they were, she tried to pinpoint any other landmarks and an exit just around the corner caught her attention.

"That exit, the one closest to us? We should try for that. And if that doesn't work or it seems to risky, we can cut through the cafeteria and get to the exit across from there," Carl explained, pointing at the locations as he did so.

She nodded her head, a small, determined smile spreading across her lips. They had a plan. That was definitely better than running blind.

"Sounds perfect. What did you find?"

"Some rags, scissors, a bag to put everything in since we lost our last one...Not much but better than nothing." He ripped the paper map off the wall and tucked it into his pocket.

As he spoke, she shifted to the door, quietly moving the caddy of cleaning supplies away, and pressed her ear against it. The growling had died down to quiet moaning and shuffling through the hallway. They must have spread out. Good. That's what they needed.

Her fingers softly pressed the lock to open and she ghosted her fingers over the cool knob before turning it. She then crouched, cracking the door slightly so she could see through the crack. A few eaters were shuffling down the left hallway with their backs to the door. To the right, more of them gathered, some facing toward them, others facing away. They'd have to be very careful...

Riley looked back at Carl, watching him collect the things he found and put them in the bag. He moved to crouch next to her.

"You ready?" he asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

"Let's do this."

And then, she opened the door all the way.

* * *

**A/N: I updated quickly, woo! Thank you for all your kind reviews, because they definitely motivated me to pop this chapter out! So Riley and Carl have got a plan, but is it gonna work out? We'll see ;) How have you guys liked the first season of Fear the Waking Dead? I love it and personally can't wait for season 2! Nick's my favorite but I may be a bit biased since he was in Harry Potter haha. And season 6 of the Walking Dead starts Sunday, are you guys excited for that? Hopefully everyone will be okay at the end of the episode haha. Anyway, thanks for all the support and reviews and I really hope you enjoyed this chapter! Will hopefully have the next one up soon!  
**


	10. Get Out Alive

**Chapter 10: Get Out Alive**

A few walkers littered the hallway, but even fewer noticed them at first. Most of them had started meandering away so their attention was diverted. Riley lurched toward the first one to take it out and Carl took on the next. She tried to be the one to exert her energy since he had an injury and she didn't want him collapsing in the middle of the hallway. Getting out was going to take time, patience, and care.

Once the walkers that saw them were down, she got low in a crouch, stopping in the middle of the hallway and scoping out their path. Not too many dead were in their way so they were in luck. They could quietly kill the ones in their way and sneak past any others.

Shifting her grip on her knife, she started forward, staying as quiet as possible as she killed the first one with its back to them. Instead of letting it drop to the floor, she carefully lowered it down so it didn't make any noise, which was a bit of a challenge since it was so heavy. Carl helped her with that which made it a lot easier and the two continued forward, killing off the walkers silently and then starting down the next hallway, which was mostly clear. Once they cleared the hallway, they stopped for a brief second to catch their breaths.

The next hallway had the route to the cafeteria so if something ended up happening, they could go through there and get to the exit quickly enough.

"We should check the next hallway and make sure we can get through or else we're screwed," she murmured, leaning her back against the cold lockers.

"Alright. Let's take a look...," Carl said, sliding against the lockers and then poking his head around the corner. His mouth formed a firm line and he looked back over at her. "There's a lot. Our best bet is to give a temporary diversion and then head through the cafeteria..."

Riley nodded, eyes scanning the hall for something they could use that would help. Nothing. What could they do to get them to come this way without getting devoured? The only thing that could possibly hide the both of them was a single open locker on the other side of the hallway.

"Do you think we could both fit in that locker?" she asked quietly, approaching it and starting to pull out all of the things that would make it harder for them to fit.

"Are you suggesting we hide in there?" he huffed, hovering over her shoulder to watch her.

"Got any better ideas? Look, you can go to that end of the hall, make some noise to get their attention. I'll stay on the other side, make sure no more come that way. We meet here in the middle and hide inside until they pass. And then we get to the cafeteria before they come back."

"It's just...risky..."

"I know. But we can't stay here forever and they're not smart enough to open up the lockers and look for us in there..."

He sighed, adjusting his hat and meeting her gaze. "Fine. Fine. But if it starts to go bad, we make a run for it."

"Of course," she agreed. "Let's do this. I don't want to be here any longer than I have to..."

Hesitantly, he slipped away from her and to the left side of the hallway. She went to the right and there were only a few more eaters that had wandered down the hall while they were here. Carl started to whistle and bang his fist against one of the lockers and she looked back in time to see him turning. She didn't wait and bolted to the locker, taking a deep breath and squeezing inside, pressing her back to the cool metal as far as she could so he had room too. This was the second time in this school that they were locking themselves up to let a herd pass by and it was getting old.

Carl climbed in as best as he could, pulling the door mostly shut behind him. It was a bit awkward because the two of them were quite literally pressed up against each other and it didn't help that it was dark and she couldn't help but think about those corny teenage movies...

Holding her breath, she tried to focus on the sounds of the walkers outside as they slowly started to pass. But she couldn't. Not with Carl's hot breath on her neck sending shivers down her spine and clouding her mind. Her blue gaze flitted over to him as he shifted his hands against the locker to try and put some more space between them, but it didn't do much good so he simply stayed put, pressing his head against the back of the locker next to her head and remaining silent.

For the first time in what felt like years, her mind was wandering back to her real teenage roots and she tried to blink the thoughts away and calm her racing heart, but it didn't help that she could feel his own heart pounding against her own. Oh, why did she have to suggest the damn locker? She attempted to get a rein on her thoughts as the walkers continued to shuffle around and look for them and it was only when the growls started to fade that she snapped out of it.

"We gotta move!" she whispered, pushing him a little so the locker opened up more.

He clambered out, seemingly in a bit of a daze, but he didn't hesitate to start down the hallway. She hurried after him, shaking her head a bit and focusing on the door of the cafeteria. Everything was going smoothly so far and the door wasn't locked at all, but things changed when the entered the cafeteria.

All of the tables were shoved against the walls to maximize the space in the room. And a majority of the room was full of empty sleeping bags, backpacks, and clothes strewn all over the place. And dead families.

It wasn't uncommon to find things like this. Enter a house and if you didn't find a dead body, you were lucky. But it still hit hard, especially when it was a family.

She slowly walked around the edge of the sleeping bag pile, stopping next to the decaying family. It was a mother, a father, and a kid that couldn't be older than eight. And even though the flesh had been mostly rotted off, she could still make out a bite wound branded into the child's arm. That was how everything happened. That or by the hand of other people frantic to survive. In the end, it always went back to the dead. They were the reason why everyone was so frantic to survive.

Drawing in a dry breath, she bent down and picked up a gleaming photo sticking out from underneath one of the rugged sleeping bags. She turned the photo over in her hands to see what it said on the back, but there were no names. Running her fingers along the edge, she flipped it again to look at the family. The parents were a beautiful Hispanic couple, young and full of life. And the child...the child was a young boy with adorable, round brown eyes and scruffy black hair. This...well frankly this sucked. Especially because the boy was so young...

She placed the photo back down where it had been and turned her head to try and spot Carl. He had somehow wandered across the room to a darker corner.

"We should get out of here," she said, taking a few steps toward him when he didn't respond. "Carl?"

A shiver crawled up her spine when he remained completely stiff. She carefully approached him as he stared straight ahead, his eyes slightly hardened. Following his gaze, she noticed a make-shift cradle...with blood splatters across the inside. She bit down on the inside of her cheek, her breath catching in her throat as the images of a once lively baby settled inside of her mind. But why he seemed to be so affected by it, she wasn't sure.

With hesitant movements, she placed her left hand on his shoulder, ignoring the slight spring in his muscles as she gently brushed her thumb across the tense muscles in his shoulder. His gaze finally met hers and she didn't think anyone had ever conveyed so many emotions to her just by staring. And he didn't hide it. No, he was being more open with her now. He was letting the pain swirl in his eyes like a tornado ripping trees from the ground. He was letting the hurt and anger and grief stab through her soul and she could _feel_ it. Penetrating every limb in her body, spinning through her veins and piercing every fiber.

"I'm sorry," she said automatically, even though she didn't know the backstory. She didn't _have_ to know. It was someone close to him that he'd lost. A sibling, maybe. But it didn't matter. All she had to know was that he was hurting.

He ducked his head, pursing his lips before he looked back at the cradle. "I had a baby sister... Her name was Judith."

She remained silent, looking at him as she saw his heart break over and over in his eyes. He'd lost his sister. That's why they cradle affected him so much.

"When our group was attacked," he continued, trying to control his wobbly voice, "my dad and I, we found her carrier empty. With blood covering it. Just like that." He gestured to the cradle.

It was then that Riley realized how hard this was really hitting him. Being without his dad. She was assuming his mother was gone and his sister was dead. His dad was the only person he had left. And she knew what it was like to lose everything.

Setting her jaw in determination, she pulled her hand off his shoulder and slid it down to his sleeve, taking firm hold of the fabric and tugging him gently in her direction. "We're going to find your dad. I promise."

He seemed momentarily stunned by her sudden turn in attitude, but a moment after he processed everything, his face shifted from confused to determined like hers and the glimmering wetness in his eyes faded away. As she turned, he moved forward, hovering by her shoulder and muttering in her ear, "and I promise you'll never be alone again. My group is your family."

It was her turn to be stunned as his words echoed in her eardrums and he moved away to find some things they could bring with them before they left. She thought she had been doing her best to hide her emotions and tell him only what she felt comfortable telling, but he had seen right through her like she was shattered, broken glass and hit right home. All she wanted to do was curl up and hide from the world because she felt exposed, but they didn't have that luxury. They had to get out of here before something happened.

Guess they would see if he'd keep his promise...

With stiff movements, she started to rummage through everything left behind. She recovered a decent backpack from the mess and looked around for anything else. All the food was spoiled and there wasn't any water, but there were a few stray bullets that she tucked away into her pocket. She also decided that it would be a good idea to pack a sleeping bag in case they ended up having to sleep somewhere on the ground. Carl also took the gun that the family had used and tucked it away into his own backpack he'd found. Once they were out of here, they could work on trying to find food and water.

"You ready?" he asked, adjusting the backpack on his shoulders.

"Ready as I'll ever be," she replied, shifting toward the door.

Very lightly, she pressed her palm against the door and pushed it open just wide enough to get a glimpse of the hallway. At the end, she could see the way out through an emergency exit door, but the hallway was completely filled to the brim with walkers. She glanced back at Carl.

"We're gonna have to make a run for it," she whispered, heart already speeding up at the prospect of running for her life yet again.

"Okay. But we stay close," he breathed.

Riley nodded in agreement and stood up a little straighter. Just as she flung the door open, a warm, bandaged hand slipped into hers and locked them together. It took a minute for the walkers to notice they started galloping down the hall, but once they noticed, they limped on their tails like a horde of bees. Since when did the dead get so fast?

But together, the two of them continued to sprint down the hall, dodging and ducking out of reach of gnarled hands. As they came upon the door, a brief flash of worry weaved itself into her mind. What if the door was locked? Then, they'd be trapped with two dozen walkers throwing themselves at them. It would be over after that. Subconsciously, she slowed down and Carl must have noticed because he gave her hand a light squeeze.

And that was all she needed to pull herself into reality. She didn't want to die. And she wasn't. Even if that door was locked, she wasn't going down without a fight. It wasn't in her nature.

Pushing her legs even harder, she braced her shoulder for the impact of the door as she hit it...and it opened. She didn't have time to cheer in triumph because her hand ripped right out of Carl's as she tumbled to the ground. Twisting onto her stomach, she got on all fours, looking up as he jumped toward the door to close it right as a walker got in the way.

The door smashed right into its rotten skull, closing all the way as brain matter and black bodily sludge catapulted everywhere. He winced a little bit, shaking some off his shoe as he kept his body pressed firmly into the door. She scrambled to her feet to help him keep the door shut. They'd probably have to make another run for it into the moon-lit woods, but...they were out.

A wide smile stretched across each of their faces simultaneously and she let out a low laugh. "We actually did it."

* * *

**A/N: Yay another chapter! It's a bit short, I know, but the next chapter shall be longer and more interesting! Riley's starting to feel the sparks, that's for sure ;) So has anyone seen the most recent Walking Dead episode? Let's just say that I refuse to believe what happened actually happened, without giving away any spoilers haha. Anyway, thank you guys soooo much for the support! You guys are the best and your reviews always light up my day! Hope you enjoy!  
**


	11. Familiar Face

**Chapter 11: Familiar Face**

It had been a relief to get out of that school. After they'd gotten out, they made a run for it into the woods and kept going all the way around until they stumbled upon the familiar train tracks. It had taken them all night to find them and at the crack of dawn, when the sun was just beginning to peer up out of its bed, they spotted a large sign. One pointing to a place called Terminus. And one that was telling a person called Glenn to follow the signs. Carl told her that he knew Glenn and that the person who was most likely writing the messages was his wife, Maggie.

Even if the messages gave no indication his dad would be going this way, they both thought the best thing to do was follow the tracks. If they could somehow find someone he knew, it would give them more likelihood of being able to find his dad. So for the rest of the night and most of the morning, they followed the tracks, passing several more signs leading them to this place called "Terminus."

They hadn't strayed too far from the tracks even though they hadn't had anything to eat or drink since they'd escaped the school, but when Riley spotted a small pond a few paces off the track, she knew they better stop. They had been going all day without any food or water. They needed this.

"That might be the only pond we come across for a while. Before we left the school, I grabbed an empty bottle. We can fill it for the rest of the way," Riley said, propping one foot up on the steel rail of the track and looking over at Carl.

"Good idea. And if we see any fish, we should try to catch them. I'm starving...," he murmured, starting toward the pond.

"Yeah, if we can even catch anything with a knife. Or we could try to use some clothes as a net or something." She shrugged following after him.

The area around the pond was very muddy, so she approached with caution, trying not to slip as they got to the edge. Bending down, she reached her hands into the water, cupping up as much as she could and bringing it to her dry, chapped lips. It was warm and swarming with dirt, but it still refreshed her down to her core and she continued to lap it up until she felt like she'd burst. Once she was done, she pulled the bottle from her bag and skimmed the top of the pond to get the cleanest water she could.

She was just about to circle the pond and see if there were any fish inside, but as soon as she stood, her feet slipped on the mud and she fell backwards into the slimy substance, effectively covering most of her body with it. Gasping, she pressed her hands deep into the mud in an attempt to push herself up. Her head snapped back when she heard Carl attempting to stifle his laughter.

"You think this is funny?" she asked, getting shakily to her feet.

Carl smirked mischievously. "Yeah. I do."

Pursing her lips, Riley moved forward and put her palms on his cheeks, smearing the mud all over his face. He squeezed his eyes shut and she smirked, wiping the mud until it was gone from her hands. Taking a step back, she put her hands on her hips.

"Now who's laughing? You seem pretty grimy, Grimes," she snickered.

Carl's mouth dropped open and he shook his head with a small smirk. "You did not just make that joke."

"Oh? And what are you going to do about it?" She cocked an eyebrow.

He didn't answer. Instead, he bent down, scooping up some mud. She realized what he was about to do and turned to move but the mud stuck to her boots and she couldn't get very far before he was splattering mud all over her. Setting her jaw, she too bent down to scoop up some mud, but he was already trying to get away.

"No you don't!" She lunged forward, grabbing onto his leg which effectively pulled him down into the mud, but not before taking her down as well.

Crawling forward, she slapped some more mud onto him before rolling away so he couldn't retaliate. A small laugh escaped her lips and she got to her feet, forming another ball of mud in her hands and aiming it at him. He dodged and got to his feet too, a smug smirk on his lips as he catapulted more at her. The two of them continued to throw mud at each other and for once, she felt _normal._

She was just a normal teenager, having fun with...with a friend. And she didn't care that she was covered in mud and neither did he. They were just...letting go for a minute and it felt so good. The past few years had been nothing but stress and it was moments like these that reminded her why it was worth living. For these...small, fleeting moments that just dropped all the weight off her shoulders.

But moments like these were too fleeting.

"Well look what we have here."

Riley was in mid throw when her head snapped to the voice. Weapons were pointed in their faces and the leader stepped forward. A very familiar face. It was that man...Joe.

"You two were slippery. But it wasn't that hard to find you after we got a little tip. Know a guy named Jacob?" Joe raised an eyebrow, keeping his gun trained on her.

Jacob? That son of a...

He continued, "ran into the feller. Asked if he'd seen a coupla kids. Led us right to where ya were."

"What do you even want with us?" Carl growled, glaring at the man.

"All in time, kid. Daryl, take their weapons." He motioned for someone at the back of the crowd to come forward.

A man with unkempt brown hair and a crossbow over his shoulder slowly stepped forward. She gritted her teeth, making eye contact with him before he went over to Carl first. But she noticed something off about Carl. He looked...confused. She'd have to ask him later. Daryl took his gun and knife and then went over to take hers.

"Make sure you get her knife," someone else piped up from the group and she looked over to see the man she had stabbed a week earlier with a large bandage covering his stomach. He didn't look very good. Pretty sickly, honestly. He deserved it.

"Screw you too, buddy," she murmured, just loud enough for him to hear.

"Feisty, huh? I think we'll have a lot of _fun_ with you," he spat.

Riley gritted her teeth and flared her nostrils as Daryl took her gun and her knife. She felt instantly bare. No way to defend herself besides her own fists.

"Get movin', we have a lot of ground to cover," Joe said, gesturing for them to start moving.

They were still being aimed at, so it was probably best for them not to try and take off. It'd be best to go along with it until they had a chance to get away.  
The two of them started walking and Joe directed them down the train tracks that they were headed along in the first place. They'd just passed through a long stretch of woods and now it seemed like it was beginning to flatten out a bit into a more grassy area. Nowhere to hide if they tried to make a break for it. Being captive had to be one of the worst things ever. Now she knew what it was like for an animal to feel trapped...

The trip was far from silent and most of the time, Joe's men kept chattering behind them. The only one who seemed to stay silent was Daryl. Glancing back, she caught his eye but he didn't say anything or even make an indication that he acknowledged her other than the look. He didn't even seem to fit in with the group at all...

"No, I already claimed! You wanted the other one!" one of them exclaimed and she looked back to see it was the one with long scruffy hair and a beard.

"Pft, I claimed her before you did!" the larger man hissed.

What were they talking about? Who were they "claiming" and what did that even mean? The larger man caught her eye and gave her a nasty smile and it all clicked. Oh. _"Her"_...they meant...

Her skin crawled and she flashed him a dirty hand gesture before turning away. These people were...sick. Worse than the hunters who wouldn't let her in with her old group. Her eyes narrowed at the ground and she tried not to think about it. They were going to get out of here before anything happened to either of them.

Abrupt skin contact made her jump, but a look down revealed it was only Carl's hand reaching across the gap between them. He shuffled a little closer as they walked to make it less obvious and looked over at her. His eyes were darkened and he was quiet, but she knew the message he was conveying.

Drawing in a heavy breath, Riley focused her gaze ahead, keeping a tight hold on his hand as they walked. The grassy field started to get more wooded yet again, but this time the tracks bent toward a little bridge and then a small train station up ahead. Was this where they were staying? Maybe not since Joe seemed like he was trying to find someone. Probably Rick and Michonne, but what had they done to get them so angry?

"This looks like a good place to hunker down. It'll be dark in a few hours. Don't know where the next shelter will be. We're not far anyway," Joe said, stopping in front of the building. "Why don't you boys clear it out?"

She and Carl stayed put next to Joe as the others headed inside to clear it of walkers. There was a short silence between them before Joe spoke up.

"You two seem close. You family?" He paused, looking at the two of them as they didn't answer or look at him. "Or is she just your plaything?"

Riley bit down on her lip, knowing that he was just trying to provoke them and she shouldn't say anything. But Carl surprised her.

He started to lunge toward Joe before he drew a gun, causing him to stop.

"You shut your mouth," he growled, glowering at the older man.

"Didn't mean it like that kid. I just know. I was a teenager once, if ya catch my drift," he said.

Carl opened his mouth to speak but she latched onto his arm. "Not worth it," she muttered, sliding her hand down his arm and gripping his hand tightly to try and divert his attention and tell him that he needed to back down.

He remained tense for a moment before turning his back to Joe and the man lowered the gun.

"No need to get all uptight. At least not yet," Joe murmured as two more of the group dragged out a walker.

"Nothin' else. It's clear."

The two of them were guided inside. Most of the place seemed to have been emptied, but there was still a fair amount scattered across the place. They were then herded into another room across the building that was a small bathroom with no windows.

"Now I can't have you two runnin' off, so you'll be staying in here. Sorry it has to be this way." Joe then reached over to accept a couple of small cloths from one of the others. "Come here, boy."

Carl didn't move at first, but Joe didn't wait and moved forward to bind his wrists tightly together before shoving him into the room. He moved onto her next and tied the cloth until it was digging into her wrists. Without another word, he slammed the door shut, leaving them alone and in darkness.

"Riley, I need to tell you something important," Carl blurted, moving toward her.

"What?" she asked quietly, shifting slightly away from the door in case anyone was listening in.

"I know Daryl."

She looked at him with wide eyes. "What?"

"He's a part of my group. I don't know why he's mixed up with this group but we got separated when our group was attacked. I know he wouldn't do anything to hurt us, but I don't know why he's with these guys," he explained quietly.

"He didn't even say anything, didn't even try to help us. Are you sure he's the same person you knew?"

"Look, I know you don't know him, but I know he wouldn't do anything to hurt me. And you're with me so he wouldn't hurt you. Can you just please trust me on this?"

"I don't-"

"Riley, _please._"

She stared into his pleading gaze, biting her lip. "Okay."

He let out a gentle sigh. "Thank you."

She nodded slightly, looking away for a minute before taking a seat on the floor across from the door. Just as he was about to sit, the door barged open to reveal Joe once more.

"Don't wanna starve ya just yet, so take your fill." He set down a wooden plank with an uncapped water bottle and some random morsels of food before shutting the door.

She was too hungry and thirsty to care if it was poisoned or rotten. She latched onto the stale, cold little slab of meat and started to rip into it. Must've been a day old or so. It was hard to eat because she was bound, but she managed to do it well enough. Eating food wasn't for pleasure anymore. It was just survival. Carl was eating too, but at a much less ravenous pace than she was. Next to the meat was a little pile of some sort of berry - it looked like a blackberry - and she scooped away half of the pile for herself. The two of them ate in silence and the water was split between them. It was warm and gross, but better than nothing.

Once they were done, they were left with nothing to do but think. There weren't any sounds coming from behind the door and it almost made her wonder if they were going to leave them here. But it wouldn't make sense since they were so bent on taking them. Neither of them knew what to say so they didn't talk and eventually, she shifted so she was laying on her side to get more comfortable. It had to be hours before the door opened and when it did, it wasn't Joe.  
Daryl stepped inside and closed the door quietly behind himself. She sat up quickly and Carl jumped to his feet.

"Where's your dad?" was the first question out of the man's mouth.

"How much time do you have?" Carl asked, looking over at the door.

"A little bit. Ya wanna explain?"

Riley crossed her legs, looking between the two before they both sat down.

"After we got separated, me and my dad found Michonne. Those guys out there, they were raiding the house we were in but we got away before they saw us. I think...they're trying to get to my dad. He said he had to kill one of them... And then we found Riley and she came with us. But we got separated from my dad over a week ago, maybe two weeks? And then they found us...why are you with them?"

Daryl nodded slightly toward Riley as a way of greeting before turning his gaze back to Carl. "I was with Beth. Lost her and ran into them. Been trying to figure out what was goin' on. But if you say your dad is out there, we gotta regroup."

"They're looking for them. Tracking them. We need them to lead us to them. And then we can get rid of them," she said suddenly.

"Girl's right," he murmured, pausing for a moment, "I'll get you each a weapon, but for now..."

He pulled a small knife from his pocket and slid it over to Carl. "Make sure they don't see it. We should be able to take them on when we find your dad."  
Carl took the knife and swiftly shoved it into his boot. "Thanks."

"Sit tight. I'll be back in the morning, see if I can get ya anything else." He got to his feet, nodding at the two of them before slipping back out the door.

Riley bit her lip. "I'm...sorry I doubted you."

He shook his head. "I get it. It's alright. We should try to rest a little. Tomorrow's going to be a long day."

Nodding, she leaned back against the wall and stared straight ahead at the wall. Hopefully tomorrow would lead them to Rick and Michonne...

* * *

**A/N: So sorry this is short! I may have rushed a little because I knew it had been a while since I updated and I wanted to get it up. So apologies for both! Anyway, our two have run into the Claimers once more but this time they have Daryl! Hopefully they'll get back to Rick soon ;) So did any of you see the midseason finale yet? I loved it! And I was happy that (SPOILER SORTA?) a certain thing from the comics didn't happen to our favorite teen haha. So I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and thank you all SO SO much for the support! You guys really are the best! **


	12. Plans Go Wrong

_A/N: I've changed the rating to M because of this chapter. The implications made in the episode of the Walking Dead correlating with this chapter are not light enough to be considered "T" subjects. If you've seen the Walking Dead past season 4 (Aka where Rick and Joe's group meet up) or Walking Dead at all (it's rated M anyway), then this isn't really anything new, but just in case, trigger warning for implied potential sexual assault.  
_

**Chapter 12: Plans Go Wrong**

A sudden light scorched through Riley's eyelids and she bolted up right, blinking open her eyes to see that the door was opening. The larger, balded man stepped into the room and she immediately pushed herself back to the wall, glaring up at him as she placed her tied hands in her lap.

"Don't worry, Just thought you'd better have a little somethin' for the road. Wouldn't want you starvin' on the way. We've got plenty more use for you yet," he said with a smirk, placing a few handfuls of berries and nuts on the slab of wood from last night. "Enjoy."

A loud slam followed him and then were left in silence again. Carl still remained on his side, but his eyes were open. "I really don't like the way he looks at us...let's keep away as much as we can, alright?"

She nodded slowly in agreement before scooting over to the food. "Hey um...I just wanted to say ah...I mean you know that I uh like taking care of myself and everything, but..."

His intense blue gaze pierced her own through the dark as he waited for her to finish. Releasing a gentle sigh, she shifted her gaze to the ground and bit her lip.

"I just want to say...thanks for looking after me and sticking with me...?" She grimaced a little, not really sure if she should have even said that at all. A lot had happened the past few days and she did want to show her appreciation, but she felt awkward about it since she usually kept her feelings inside. What the hell was she even doing? Why was she suddenly being so open like this?

"Ah nevermind," she said quickly, focusing on the food in front of them.

"No wait, hey..." Carl scooted closer, bumping her shoulder with his own. "You don't need to thank me. We look out for each other. That's just what we do. But, you're welcome. And I mean...honestly if you hadn't stuck around, I'd be alone on this and probably wouldn't have gotten out of anything we'd been through. I mean you went after me when I fell in the river. And we stuck together in the school and we made it out..."

Riley pressed her lips together, keeping her gaze planted firmly on the blackberry pile as the words sunk into her skin. He was so different than anyone she had ever been stuck with. Most people didn't hesitate to walk away, but he stuck with her, appreciated her for doing it, and even helped look after her. It was definitely something different than she was used to.

She wasn't sure how to answer him so she simply nodded, remaining still for a moment before continuing to eat. The two of them ate silently until they heard a rather loud ruckus from the other side of the door. She pushed herself to her feet, heading toward the door and pressing her ear against it to try and hear what was going on.

"Wait, let's try 'n sort this out. Are you lyin', Len?"

"Course I ain't! You gonna trust him over me?"

"Now hold on just a moment. Daryl, did you steal Len's half of the rabbit?"

"Nah..."

Riley glanced over at Carl with a confused expression on her face. What were they even talking about? Pressing her ear harder against the door, a sudden shout made her reel back and she grimaced as loud thuds and shouts of pain and pleading slammed against her eardrums. She took a few steps back, squeezing her eyes shut as ever thud and shout drew her muscles tighter and tighter across her bones until she was sure that she was going to suffocate herself from being so stiff.

And then it stopped.

A sickening silence stretched across the air and she opened her eyes, peering at the door for any signs of anything. Had it been Daryl? Her gaze locked firmly on the crack of the door as they waited and it had to have been at least ten minutes before anything happened.

The door creaked open slowly and her muscles loosened like a rubber band relaxing after being taut. It was Daryl.

"Come on," he murmured, motioning for them to come out of the room.

Swallowing a lump in her throat, she started forward after Carl. It took her a minute for her eyes to adjust to the blinding light, but honestly when she saw the faces of Joe and the others, she almost wished she was blind.

"Hope you two got some sleep. We got a long day ahead of us," Joe said before turning to his men. "Come on, boys. Let's get this show on the road."

Daryl placed a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her forward. Carl followed suit and they headed outside. The first thing that greeted them was a white sheet and she was sure that it wasn't there for decoration. Why would they kill one of their own? Were they really that savage?

Riley looked away to try and keep it out of her mind. Just the image brought her head swimming back into survival mode and her first instinct was to run because she couldn't fight. But she had Carl to stick with and then there was Daryl, who she still didn't trust completely but trusted Carl enough to know he was alright. She couldn't leave them and if she ran, it'd be easy for any of them to get shot. There had to be a way to take control of the situation. They just had to get out of these bindings...

They started down the railroad tracks once more, Daryl and a few of Joe's loonies trailing behind while Joe led. It had to have barely been morning and yet the heat beating down on them was agonizing. She twisted her wrists in discomfort, trying to find some relief from the cloth digging into her flesh, but it was no use.

"We're going to be okay," Carl murmured quietly.

"I know. I just..." She bit her lip, trying to come up with the words to describe what she was feeling.

"You don't have to explain. I get it. We just...have to be careful."

Being careful was a lot harder than it seemed. She lowered her gaze to the ground and said nothing in response, just listening to the bickering behind them about objects being "claimed." They had a stupid code, that was for sure.

As they continued walking, the heat of the sun began to get more and more overbearing and soon enough, large beads of sweat trickled down her face and neck. There wasn't much to do but keep walking and try to ignore the bickering and occasional jeers aimed at them. These men acted like they were five year olds...

"Hold up!" Joe exclaimed, putting his hands out to stop them.

He knelt down, running his fingers along the slightly damp dirt at their feet. Sure enough, multiple indents shaped like boots engraved the dirt. If they were searching for Michonne and Rick, that had to be them.

"These tracks are fresh. They're close. Shouldn't be more than an hour or so ahead. We don't stop for nothin' unless it's water. Come on."

Anxiety rippled across Riley's skin. They were close. If they were close, they had to get the upper hand sometime soon so that this didn't end up badly. Once they got to Rick and Michonne, they'd have more of a chance against these guys. There had to be something they could do now...

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a growl and her head snapped to the side as a mossy-covered walker emerged from the trees. Daryl raised his crossbow in attempt to shoot, but Joe quickly got in the way so he wouldn't get it.

"Wait. I think we oughta have a bit of fun first," Joe said with a raised eyebrow before pushing Carl right toward it.

What the hell was he doing?

Carl hadn't been expecting the shove, so he tumbled right at it's feet, causing it to trip over him and land on top of him. She dove forward, attempting to shove it over to get it off him.

"Riley!"

She gritted her teeth as the walker grabbed her arm and she attempted to wrestle herself free from its grip. The laughing of Joe's men definitely wasn't helping and her cheeks flushed bright red. These assholes thought this was a game.

Carl wiggled himself out from under the writhing body and sent a kick flying at its jaw just as it was about to chomp down into her arm. Its jaw catapulted into the woods and she pried her arm free. Her hair whipped into her face as a sudden force rushed right past her cheek and the growls died out. Panting, she turned her gaze to the walker to see an arrow embedded into its skull.

Daryl walked past them and set his jaw. She could clearly tell he wasn't too happy about Joe's little game and neither was she.

"Way to ruin the fun, Daryl," one of them muttered, giving the walker a kick. "Get up."

She growled quietly to herself, heart still thrashing wildly in her chest as she got to her feet. "Are you okay?" she asked Carl, letting out a shaky breath.

"Yeah. I'm good. You?"

"I suppose so."

It was definitely hard to be "good" when they were being used as walker bait. At least Daryl hadn't left them to figure it out on their own. Definitely a few points of trust in his direction.

"We need to get these bindings off somehow," she murmured. Once they were free, they could more easily try to get hold of a weapon somehow.

"Quit chattin' and walk faster!"

She shot a glare over her shoulder, but picked up her pace anyway. The faster they got to Carl's dad, the faster they'd be able to get out of this.

Most of the afternoon was similar. They didn't come across any more of the dead, but they were still poked and prodded at. Most of the time, she kept her mouth shut, but it was hard not to snap back every once in a while, to which their comment would be something along the lines of _"ooh feisty."_ The heat only intensified as the day sloughed on and the only water they had come across was a tiny, dirty puddle that didn't contain enough water for even one of them.

But a small little bridge stretched into view and her body perked up. Bridge meant water. She moved a little faster, locking her eyes on the stream that appeared as they got closer. They veered off the track to the edge of the stream and she quickly dropped to her knees to scoop up handfuls of water into her mouth. It was a little difficult because of her wrists being tied together, but she managed until she felt full with water.

She scooted backwards to rest against the trunk of a tree as Daryl and the others went to drink and collect their own water. The shade cast cool shadows across her skin, relieving her from the heat just a little bit. Her eyes flickered to their surroundings. It was still very wooded with hardly any clear spots at all.

Bringing her legs to her chest, she caught sight of something by her boot. A decently sized jagged rock. Immediately she snatched it up and looked over to the others to see that their backs were turned and they weren't paying her any attention. Taking the chance, she shifted so her hands were out of sight and slipped the rock between the bindings. It was difficult to maneuver the rock, but she was able to slip it between her wrists and awkwardly shift it back and forth against the cloth.

"Riley, what are you doing?" came Carl's hushed voice.

"Getting free," she muttered, continuing to saw at the cloth.

"They're going to notice!"

"Not if I'm quick." She smirked in satisfaction as the cloth began to fray. "Just a little more..."

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

Dammit. She dropped the rock and looked up as Joe came striding over and practically lifted her to her feet by the collar of her shirt. Coughs spluttered out of her lips as she gained her balance, only to be roughly knocked off balance again. She slammed against the tree, bark digging into her flesh like a bed of nails.

"You gotta know, you're not the one who makes the rules around here. We're not going to play your games, you hear? This is your last warning. You try anythin' like that again and it's not gonna end well," Joe drawled, looking down at her like she was a little child.

She glared up at him, pressing her lips hard together and saying nothing. Carl slowly shifted beside her so they were shoulder to shoulder and Joe finally turned.

"Let's get going. We've been wasting time."

Slowly, she peeled her skin away from the tree and started forward, keeping her gaze firmly on the ground.

"That was...kinda stupid. I thought we had a plan," Carl muttered from beside her, causing her cheeks to ignite.

He was right. She'd let herself get too eager about getting free and trying to take control. She needed to clear her head, try to keep it cool. After all of this time, she was so used to surviving and fighting that she needed to take a step back and realize when to slow down.

"I know I just...I thought I could figure it out..," was her reply and she failed to meet his eyes.

"Just trust Daryl. He'll get us where we need to be. Or at least trust me. You said you did..."

"I do. I..." _I'm sorry..._

"We'll be alright if we stay together."

New concept. She'd trained her brain that it would be alright if she didn't let anyone in and survived alone. She wasn't sure about his theory, but...well she did say that she would stick with him so guess she'd have to see how well sticking together would work out for her.

The rest of the afternoon, everyone stayed fairly quiet. The sun stretched down below the horizon and the darkness shrouded each of them. The only change besides walking happened when Joe would kneel down to check the dirt for footprints. He also sent one of the others ahead to scout out the area and they were currently waiting for his return. If Joe was sending out scouts, they had to be very close.

The two of them stuck close to Daryl and anxiously scanned the treeline. They were so close to Carl reuniting with his father and she could practically feel the anxiety radiating off his body next to her. After all this time, he was finally going to see Rick again. She suspected that they had never been separated like this before.

Movement caught her eye and she stood on her tiptoes to try and get a better look. Joe's scout moved out of the trees and she chomped down on her lip.

"Found 'em. Huddled by a fire off a little road just ahead. Easy to surround 'em," he said, a malicious smile flickering across his lips.

"Alright. Dan and Billy, y'all are gonna stay behind with the kids. Rest of us'll surround them and when I call y'all out, you bring 'em. Let's move," Joe instructed, glancing between all of them.

Wait what? She expected to have Daryl be the one staying behind, but they were being left behind with the two creeps. Billy came over to grab her arm and she reared back, slamming her head into his chest and struggling in his grip.

"Let me go," she growled, writhing and trying to pull all her weight to the ground to make it difficult for him to hold her.

"Relax, you'll have fun soon enough," Billy snickered, grabbing her other arm to keep her steady.

But the most brilliant idea by Carl Grimes had to be his idea of making as much noise as possible.

"DAD! WATCH OUT! HE-mpph!"

Dan slapped a hand over Carl's mouth and effectively muted him. Before she got a chance to continue with the noise-making, Billy followed suit.

"Shut your mouth, kid!" Dan hissed, wrapping an arm around Carl's middle to keep him from squirming.

This was _not_ going as planned and she was beginning to feel the panic settle in. She opened her mouth and snapped her teeth down on the palm of Billy's hand and he let out a soft howl of pain, retracting his hand just long enough for her to shout, "RICK! I'M WITH CARL!"

And then the air was rocketed out of her lungs and she fell to the dirt, cringing as pain shot up and down her back. She didn't even get a moment of relief before she was yanked back to her feet, spluttering like a fish out of water.

"Try that again, and you're not gonna like what happens next," Billy growled, pulling her head back with her hair.

She still couldn't breathe so she merely gritted her teeth in response, glowering up at him.

"Might as well bring 'em out!" Joe called from somewhere ahead.

Sweet oxygen finally rushed into her lungs and she panted, stumbling forward. The two of them were forcefully pushed in the direction of Joe's voice and soon, a soft firelight came into view. Through the trees, she could see the figures of Rick and Michonne bent down with guns pressed to their temples. Daryl's body was crumpled against the nearby car as one of the others held him down and beat him.

"Lookie who we've got here," Joe taunted, looking down at a livid Rick Grimes at the barrel of his gun.

Dan shoved Carl to the ground with an ecstatic laugh and then knelt over him, pressing his face into the dirt as he struggled.

"Let them go. It was just me," Rick snarled, the deep rumble of of a primal animal emerging from his throat.

Riley stomach jolted as a knife suddenly came to her throat and she couldn't move or else her blood would spill from her neck.

"See now that's right!" Joe exclaimed, glancing up. "That's not some damn lie. Look we can settle this, we're reasonable men. First we're going to beat Daryl to death. Then we'll have the girls. And then the boy. And then I'm gonna shoot you and we'll be square."

His malicious laugh made her skin crawl and she squirmed uncomfortably in Billy's grip as Carl's grunts of frustration and fear reached her eardrums.

"Hear that little miss? Dan here's going to have a fun time with your little friend. But I get to have fun with _you_," Billy whispered in her ear.

Thick, nauseating saliva formed in the back of her throat and her stomach churned. Oh, she was going to be_ sick._ One arm wrapped around her waist and the knife point slipped under her shirt collar and dug into the fabric in an attempt to slice through it.

No, no, no there was _no way_ this was happening to her. She wasn't going to let it. She'd rather die.

"Let them go!" Rick repeated.

"You want me to have to hold you down too?" Billy laughed.

"You're squirming," Dan snickered.

Too much going on. She couldn't focus and everything was moving way too quickly. A sudden gunshot startled all of them and each of them froze, watching Joe stumble backwards and Rick gain his bearings. She blinked the dizziness away and instincts took over. Another bite to the hand had Billy letting her go and she tumbled away, falling to the ground. Rick and Joe were fighting themselves, but right now she just needed to get her hands free.

Chest heaving, she crawled away, right at the knife that had been dropped in the confusion. Every breath brought the dizziness swirling back until she didn't know what was upside down or right side up, but she reached the knife. She actually reached it.

Just as she turned over on her back to fumble with the blade, Billy gained his senses again and pounced on her, ripping the knife from her hands and tossing it aside.

"Don't freaking touch me!" she screamed, thrashing in his grip as everyone fought like hell to survive.

Blood roared in her ears and she turned her head to try and find anything that would help her, but what she caught sight of made her and everyone else freeze and stare.

Rick lurched forward and took a huge chunk of flesh from Joe's neck.

_Shit._

Blood spurted everywhere, leaving both the men showered in red liquid, but Rick didn't care. He promptly spit out the hunk of skin and muscle before taking Joe's knife. Her vision spun with dark shapes and colors of all sort as gunshots echoed here and there and then the weight on top of her was lifted. She couldn't even move. All she could do was blink stupidly up at the darkened sky as her body tried to process what had just happened.

Rough hands lifted her to her feet and she swayed on the spot, tugging her wrists apart after they'd been cut free. Her body shuddered and trembled violently as she finally gained her focus once more. Daryl leaned onto the truck next to her as Rick continued to slash and stab at Dan's body. Michonne had her arms tightly around Carl. It was over. They were safe.

Riley's stomach churned and her body stiffened and the next thing she knew, she was on all fours, spilling the contents of her stomach into the dirt. She continued to dry heave for a few moments before her stomach gave up. Slowly, she moved to sit and drew her legs to her chest, resting her chin on her knees as she continued to tremble in shock. It felt like a nightmare. If only that was just what it was...

* * *

**A/N: I knew I'd eventually have to change the rating due to the touchy subjects in the show, didn't think it'd be so soon haha. This was a little hard to write even for me because of the subject touched upon, but anyway, the imminent danger is out of the way for now with these guys. Terminus is just around the corner, so they won't be safe for long, but not that they can breathe, they have some time to get their thoughts straight. Hopefully this chapter wasn't so bad. Next chapter will delve a little bit more into the aftermath and the thoughts going on between the two. Thank you guys for all the support, you guys are really, seriously amazing! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**


	13. The Aftermath

**Chapter 13: The Aftermath**

Riley stared out the grimy windshield. The sun had been up for at least an hour now and none of them had moved. Rick and Daryl remained outside for the entire night while she sat curled up in the passenger seat of the car and Michonne sat in the back with Carl's head tucked into her lap. Everyone was still in shock from last night. Or at least she was. None of them had said a word since they got into this car. Daryl had suggested that Michonne take the two of them in here to sleep and recover. They were doing anything but that, though Carl did seem to be dozing in and out.

Every inch of her felt dirty and exhausted. Even so, she couldn't find the strength to shut her eyes and take a rest. Her mind was swirling with everything that happened. The most shocking obviously being the brutal annihilation of Joe by Rick's teeth. But the one her mind lingered on the most were Dan and Billy's intentions with her and Carl. Even the thought sent shivers up and down her spine and made her mouth water with nausea.

Her arms wrapped around herself and she squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to think about it anymore. It made her feel so dirty and sick to her stomach. And somehow, she couldn't stop thinking about it.

She and Carl nearly got _raped._ How was that supposed to just breeze over? If it hadn't been for Rick getting loose and killing Joe... She shuddered at the thought and buried her face into her knees.

Heavy rapping on the window awoke every muscle in her body and she spun in the seat, looking over to see Daryl at the back window. Michonne untangled her fingers from Carl's hair and reached over to open up to door.

"We're gonna be leavin'," he said, glancing back at Rick.

"Okay. Give us a minute," Michonne murmured, nodding at him.

Daryl dipped his head before disappearing from view. Carl sat up and caught her eye. She quickly looked away, drawing in a deep breath and preparing herself mentally for moving forward. Slowly, she opened up the door and slid out into the fresh air. That was one thing she loved about the woods. It was relaxing and helped her to feel a little more freed up from her thoughts.

"You three should eat somethin' before we head out," Rick suggested, causing her to turn and see the half-full bag of cereal he was offering them.

His appearance was still pretty shabby. Blood stained his beard and ran in dribbles down his neck and his hair hung loosely in his face. It looked like he had tried to wipe some of the blood off, but it still clung to him as a reminder of what had to be done last night.

Michonne took the bag from him and handed it to Carl. "You two eat. You'll need it more than us."

He looked down at the bag before holding it out to Riley for first dibs. She gave the tiniest of grateful smiles before grabbing a handful. The cereal tasted like nothing and dried up her mouth pretty quickly. Honestly, she wasn't very hungry to begin with, but eating was more of an obligation now than anything else. The two of them switched back and forth with the food until it was gone and Carl threw the crumpled plastic bag on the ground.

Wordlessly, all of them grouped up and started through the woods to the nearby train tracks. The heat already started to boil down on them, which just meant that it was going to be another really hot day.

Rick and Daryl led the way with Michonne not too far behind and she and Carl in the back. No words were exchanged for a while and each of them were left to ponder their own thoughts. That was, until Carl slowed down to fall in step with her.

"Hey are you...okay?" he asked quietly.

She could see his hand twitch toward hers out of the corner of her eye, but then he refrained from making contact when she didn't say anything. Was she okay? Physically, yes. Mentally, maybe. Emotionally, probably not.

Her eyes widened when he finally decided to make contact by curling his fingers around her wrist, pulling her to a stop and making her face him. He took both her hands in his and looked down at her.

"You don't have to hide what you're feeling from me. I'm...feeling funny too. And I don't want you to feel like you're alone. I don't know what you've been through before we met but I know you were alone for a while and...it sucks to be alone. You can tell me everything. I'm here with you. All of us are," he assured.

Riley looked down, soaking up his words and nodding slowly, squeezing his hands to show him he was grateful. "I...thank you... Ever since my parents died I'm...I have trouble talking about things, you know?"

She finally looked up at him to meet his gaze. It was hard to open up to people. Her parents had been the only people she would open up to after this. When they died, she tried to trust others, but they had just betrayed her and left her alone. She was placing a gamble on Carl and his group, but...maybe it was time to start taking chances on people. Their trust grew over the last two weeks and that accounted for something.

"I get it," he said. "I...had to kill my mom. And I felt the same way you do..."

Her breath hitched in her throat at that personal information. He had a way of saying things that caught her off guard.

"It was my dad... He killed my mom a while before...and then I had to shoot him before he turned and I..." She closed her eyes and drew in a shaky breath.

"You don't have to tell me everything, Riley. I just want you to know that you're not alone... The both of us went through that last night, and the both of us will get through it together."

The words penetrated her bones as she opened her eyes to look up and him and confirm with a nod. "Okay."

"Carl? Riley?"

Both of their heads snapped to see that the others had gotten a pretty noticeable distance away. Rick motioned for them to regroup, a curious look crossing his features. Letting go of Carl's hands, she started forward at a slow jog until she was caught up, the boy in the sheriff's hat on her heels.

"It's just up ahead," Rick murmured. "Stay quiet and cautious. We don't know what this place is like."

She drew in a deep breath and cleared her mind. The trees slowly branched outwards as the tracks led to a larger building. Gates surrounded it and "Terminus" stretched across the wall in red paint. It seemed vacant from the front, which sent out an eerie vibe that didn't make her feel so comfortable.

"Head around the back," Daryl suggested, adjusting his crossbow.

Rick nodded in agreement. "Let's go."

They hurried through the trees, keeping low and quiet as they followed the chain link fence further back. Through the fence, she could see various box cars, but not much else. No people.

"Stay here. I'm going to circle around," Rick said before disappearing.

Riley took the bag set on the ground and dug around for a water, finding one at the bottom and pulling it out. Daryl kept a sharp eye out while Michonne pulled Carl aside to talk. It wasn't her place to eavesdrop, so she settled down at the base of one of the trees and took a nice, long gulp of water. She wasn't sure about this Terminus place. The signs they passed kept telling of a sanctuary for all, but what were the odds of that? There weren't sanctuaries in this world anymore. And by the way this place looked, it had to be abandoned. Or there was something else wrong with it. She didn't really know, but it seemed suspicious.

Her eyes flickered over to Michonne and Carl as they embraced and she bit her lip. He was having a hard time too and the dark-skinned woman seemed almost like a mother figure to him. It made sense since he had lost his mom. He needed someone to look up to like that. It made her wish that she had someone like that. A father figure. A mother figure. Her's were gone.

Michonne caught her eye and she quickly looked away, biting her lip and pulling her knees to her chest. Footsteps approached after a moment and someone plopped down next to her. She didn't need to look to know who it was.

"Hey Riley. We haven't gotten to talk much, but I'm glad you and Carl made it through," she said.

Her blue eyes were greeted with a warm smile when she looked up. "Yeah... I'm glad too."

"You holding up?"

Automatically, she nodded in an almost robotic manner. She didn't know Michonne well enough to trust her with the response she granted Carl. Of course, she knew that she was a nice woman and trustworthy, but not close enough to tell her anything important.

"You and me are a lot alike. I would've said the same thing, even if I wasn't."

Was she really that transparent? Averting her gaze, she stared hard at the ground, not sure exactly how to respond to that.

"I just wanted to tell you...you know if someone ever tries to do that to you again...you shoot. Don't hesitate. People like that...they're the real monsters of this world," she said seriously, "Rick did what he had to, and he was right to do so."

Riley's breath hitched and she pressed her lips together. "Okay..."

Michonne patted her gently on the shoulder in a comforting way, and though she would never admit it, she liked the comfort, even from someone she barely knew. A twig snapping caught their attention and they both jumped to their feet, poised and ready to attack, but it was only Daryl and Rick.

"We head in," Rick said with a nod and gesture to them.

They started to climb up over the fence, one at a time. She was surprised that there wasn't anything but that keeping them from getting in. As her feet touched the ground, Michonne's words rang through her ears and she pressed her lips together, eyes darting around the place. _Be ready, be ready..._

The five of them quickly sneaked forward to the nearest open door. Daryl was the first one in and as they entered, she could hear a woman speaking. Sounded like she was relaying a message that had to do with this place.

Shadows encompassed the hall, but began to scatter away once they got to the main part of the warehouse, where light swirled in through the windows. A woman sat at a table, speaking into a microphone and repeating a message over and over.

"Hello," Rick said, giving away their position.

Eyes darted toward them and she kept her gun held tightly in her hands in case any of them were going to try anything.

"Well I bet Albert is on perimeter watch," one of them sighed - a man with unkempt brown hair holding a paintbrush across the room.

He slowly approached them, steady gaze on Rick. "Well, you here to rob us?" he continued.

"No," Rick denied, taking a few steps to close the gap. "We wanted to see you before you saw us."

The other man shrugged a little. "Makes sense. Usually we do this where the tracks meet... Welcome to Terminus."

He held his arms out to gesture to everywhere around him. He seemed friendly enough, but Riley was still a bit uneasy.

"I'm Gareth. Looks like you've been on the road for a good bit," Gareth observed.

"We have," Rick confirmed. "Rick. That's Carl. Daryl. Michonne. Riley."

Gareth gave a small wave and smile, which was followed by a short silence. He seemed to pick up on this. "You're nervous! I get it. We all felt the same way. We came here for sanctuary. That what you here for?"

"Yes."

"Good. You found it. Hey Alex?" He called over another. "This isn't as pretty as the front, but the welcome wagon is a whole lot nicer. Alex will take you, ask you a few questions...Uh, but first...we need to see everyone's weapons. If you could just lay them down in front of you."

Riley sucked in a breath, glancing toward the others. It made sense that they would want to see their weapons, but she didn't want to give hers up. Her stomach clenched as Rick agreed and Gareth said something she didn't catch.

"Riley...your gun," Rick said, snapping her back into reality.

She looked over at him, noticing that he had already put his weapon down along with the others. Biting her lip, she slowly slipped her gun and knife from her jeans and laid them on the ground. Gareth gave her a nod and then they were each patted down, much to her discomfort. Everything seemed to be in check, though, because they didn't try to shoot them.

"Just so you know, we aren't those kind of people," Gareth assured, "but we aren't stupid either. So I hope you won't be stupid enough to try anything stupid. As long as everyone's clear on that, we shouldn't have any problems. Just solutions. Okay."

Gareth then turned around and Alex started to hand them back their weapons. She grabbed hers before he came to her, which seemed to startle him a bit, but she just put them away, feeling safer with them on her.

"Follow me!" Alex said cheerfully.

They followed him out of the room and down the hall. No people crossed their paths until they got outside, where everything seemed a lot more bright and open. Flowers lined the buildings and people strolled along. Alex started to talk about the place a little bit, but she didn't pay any attention until they stopped in front of a woman with brown hair in a messy braid.

"Heard you came in the back door. Smart. You'll fit right in here," she commented, smiling at them as she cooked some food.

And then she met Carl's gaze. He gave her a small smile, which she returned. At least he knew how she was feeling. All of them were still feeling uneasy.

Mary handed Carl a plate and then her. They had a lot of food it seemed, which made her wonder how they got it. Alex was just about to hand a plate to Rick when he smacked it out of his hand and pulled a gun on him. She immediately dropped her plate and pulled out her own gun as the others did so as well.

Rick pulled a small pocket watch from Alex's pocket and looked it over. "Where the hell did you get this watch?"

The Terminus people were aiming their guns at them and she drew her aim to one of the snipers on the roof pointing his gun at Rick and Alex. She wasn't sure why Rick was adamant about this watch and what it had to do with anything, but all she knew was that guns were up and she was ready to go.

"Where did you get the riot gear? And the poncho?" Rick pressed.

"Got the riot gear off a dead cop. Found the poncho on a clothesline," Gareth said, suddenly appearing.

She switched her aim to him, heart quickening a bit.

"Gareth we can wait-"

"Shut up, Alex."

The two began to go back and forth for a moment, but Riley tuned out all of that, only holding onto the important details that would determine if they lived or died.

"Where are our people?!" Rick demanded and it suddenly became clearer to her.

He recognized things that the people in his group had previously. Were these guys holding them hostage? She didn't get a chance to even think about it because the gunfire started and she had to duck. Carl grabbed her arm and she stumbled after him, aiming at anyone shooting their way.

Her heart began to run a marathon as they sprinted away, but the gunfire pushed them further into one of the buildings. She stayed close to Carl and Michonne, muscles springing into action as she lengthened her stride and turned tightly with the halls. She swore she saw rotting hunks of flesh as they ran, but she couldn't be sure. Everything was as blur of gunfire and colors swirling in her vision.

Bursting into a room, they slowed as they spotted candles everywhere, almost like a shrine of some sort. Nausea churned in her stomach as the adrenaline continued to rush through her body.

"What is this place?" Daryl asked breathlessly.

"These people...I don't think they're trying to kill us," Michonne said.

"No..," Rick agreed, "they're bringing in their feed."

_Feed?!_ They were going to...to _eat_ them!? Was that...was that even true? These people they were...cannibals? Herding them into this place like cattle to the slaughter?!

Her stomach jolted and she keeled over, holding back a heave as the flashes of rotten flesh came back to her mind. _Oh shit... _They just bounced from one group of sickos to the next... She was not going to be almost raped and then almost eaten in the same day...

Blood rushing to her ears, she swooped after the others, unable to breathe properly as they headed back outside to escape this twisted place. They were almost to the gates when more heads popped up and she realized something...

They were surrounded.

She stopped in place, panting and looking for a way out - any way - but there was nothing. Groups of men and women surrounded every side with their guns poised to fire at any given moment.

"Drop your weapons! Now!"

Carl's gaze bore into hers for a moment before he looked to his dad for guidance. She shifted her gaze to fit firmly on the ground as Gareth repeated his message more forcefully.

The gun slipped from her fingers and clattered to the ground, each _clank _penetrating deep in her bones. She then tossed her knife down to join the pile.

"Ring leader! Go to your left! The train car! _Go!_"

Rick hesitated, not keen on leaving Carl behind.

"You do what we say, the boy goes with you. Anything else he dies and you end up in there anyway."

That was all that was needed to make Rick take the first step and head to the train car. Carl watched him the entire time and she wished she could say _something_ to reassure him that his dad was going to be fine.

"Now the archer."

That was Daryl's signal. He shot a glare at Gareth before following Rick.

"Now the samurai."

That left her and Carl. However, Gareth didn't tell either of them to follow. He was using them as leverage. Hopefully just to get them into the car. If they actually took either of them, she was going to fight back...

"_My son!_" Rick shouted after they had been lined up.

After a moment's pause, Gareth gave the go ahead for Carl to go. Except he didn't move. He looked back at her, terrified blue eyes meeting hers.

"Kid,_ go!_" Gareth snapped.

"W-what about Riley!" he spoke up, voice slightly shaky as he kept his gaze firmly planted on her.

"Carl, go," she murmured through gritted teeth, not wanting him to get in trouble just for her sake. That was just going to get both of them killed and they didn't need that. "Just go!"

"If you don't want to die, get moving, kid!" Gareth hissed, causing Rick to start protesting. "Stay quiet, ring leader!"

A tense blanket hovered in the atmosphere but Carl finally moved. She stayed put, watching him head forward to the line.

"Ring leader, open the door to the car, and go in!" Gareth commanded.

"I'll go in with him!" Rick shot back.

"Don't make us kill him now!"

He finally did as he was told and the started to file in. Her muscles tensed. What were they going to do with her? She began to panic inside as Carl made it to the door. He shot a look at her before disappearing inside. Her gaze stayed firmly on the open train car and every second that ticked by brought on more crushing anxiety.

"Go on, girl," Gareth finally said.

Riley nearly jumped forward.

She headed toward the car at a steady pace, climbing the steps, and then stepping inside the darkened car. Carl latched onto her forearm as the door shut behind her and she gripped his shirt tightly, letting out a shuddering breath. They didn't need to say anything to each other. The relief was evident in her eyes and in his.

"Rick?"

The sudden voice made her nearly jump out of her skin and the only thing holding her steady was Carl. She turned, noticing a group emerging from the shadows of the other side of the car. A Korean man, a brunette woman, and a handful of others.

"You're here?" Rick confirmed.

A small silence stretched before the brunette spoke, "they're friends. They helped us."

She gestured back toward some of the others, who must have been strangers to Rick.

"Yeah. Now they're friends of ours," Daryl decided, nodding a bit.

"For however long that'll be," the ginger in the back muttered, turning away.

"No." Rick shook his head. "They're going to feel pretty stupid when they find out..."

What was he talking about? All of them were curious and the ginger male stepped forward again.

"Find out what?"

Rick looked toward each of them, giving a long, hard look before finishing his train of thought.

"They're fucking with the wrong people."

* * *

**A/N: Guyssss it's here! Sorry for the wait, I had to figure a lot of stuff out but I've finally come up with an update schedule that will probably work. I'm updating at 8pm on Sundays (tonight was a fluke because of busyness). Rest of my story schedules are posted on my profile. Anyway, thank you soooo much for being amazing readers and reviewing and reading and everything! You guys mean a lot to me and I hope you liked this chapter! **


	14. World Comes Crashing Down

**Chapter 14: World Comes Crashing Down**

Riley gnawed on her lip as she chipped away at the wooden corner of the train car. After Rick's little speech, they all started to furiously craft their own weapons. Belt buckles, zippers, buttons - anything they could find - were used to sharpen objects or as a weapon by themselves. None of them were going to go down without a fight. No one wanted to die and be eaten by a bunch of sadistic cannibals.

Carl sat across the car, filing away at his own corner. She glanced at him every now and then, catching his eye once in a while and assuring him with a nod that she was okay and that they were going to be okay. Even if she didn't believe it. They had to try. She knew everyone in here would rather die fighting than give up.

Focusing her attention back on the wood in front of her, she shifted in her spot, tucking her legs underneath her. A hard object pressed against the side of her foot and she flinched, looking down at her boot. With all haste, she unlaced her shoe to get whatever rock was in it out before she had to be ready to defend herself, but what she found was even better than a rock.

Her eyes widened and she hastily scooped up the small pocket knife that stuck snugly to her sock. She remembered slipping it in her boot weeks back, but she'd forgotten about it since then. But there it was in all it's glory. She'd forgotten it was there and the Termites didn't even check there for weapons. It wasn't a gun, but it was a lot better than a long, sharpened piece of wood.

Quickly, she tied her boot back to her foot and shuffled over to Carl, latching onto his shoulder to catch his attention.

"I found this in my shoe," she murmured, not bothering to hide the excitement in her voice when she showed him the small weapon.

He took it in his hands, looking over it before glancing back at the others as they worked on getting their weapons crafted. Giving it back to her, he closed her fingers shut around it.

"Don't let the others see it," he said, looking up at her.

Her eyebrows furrowed and she glanced over at Rick as he ripped the zipper off his jacket. "Why?"

"Because they'll take it from you. I'd feel safer if you had it," he explained quietly, retracting his hand from hers and catching her gaze.

Her breath hitched in her throat and for a moment she didn't even know what to say. Before she could come up with something to fill the silence, footsteps and moving outside caught everyone's attention. She flipped open the knife, holding it tightly in her hand so only the blade poked out of her fist as she slowly neared the door with the others. Everyone stood, poised to attack as soon as the door swung open. Carl's fingers curled around the fabric of her shirt and he stuck close, just as ready to fight with his carved piece of wood as she was with the only real weapon in the train car.

The noises suddenly stopped and she strained to listen, keeping her eyes locked on the door. Nothing happened. Did they know that everyone inside was waiting for them to open the door and have their guards down?

Sunlight suddenly poured into the metal cage, blinding her momentarily as smoke filled her lungs. She squinted, backing up into the wall next to the door as everyone choked on the clouds of grey swirling in the air. A second later, the door flung open and a hand shot out, grabbing onto Rick and pulling him roughly from the opening. Her instincts were delayed because of the smoke, but they finally decided to kick in when the Korean man next to her was nabbed.

With all her strength, she lashed the knife out on the guy's arm, eliciting a scream from his lips. Carl still held onto her, but as she slid the blade down across his arm, she was ripped from his grip and toppled out of the train car on top of the guy. Her head jostled about, blurring her vision as she scrambled to get up. All she could make out was Carl screaming her name and his dad's name and the tight grip on her arm.

Suddenly, she was lifted and her vision cleared. She was able to catch glimpses of Daryl, Rick, the Korean man, and someone else before all she saw was the sweat-dripping back of her captor.

"Let me _go!_" she screamed, pounding her fists hard on his back and squirming with every bit of fight she had left in her. "You can't do this!"

He replied with a pained grunt as they descended into the darkness of the building. That was when she realized that she was being led somewhere different than the others. Maybe somewhere where she would be restrained until they slaughtered everyone else and it was her turn. She had to get out. She had to get back to the others and not die. There was no way she was going to die.

She let out another scream, kicking her legs and digging her nails into her captor's back. He tightened his grip on her and continued, trying not to pay her much attention. Her screams and shouts of profanities continued until her throat throbbed painfully. None of it was doing her any good. Switching strategies, she frantically looked around for anything she could grab onto, but the halls were bare and the room they passed through only had hanging human carcasses. Bile crept up her throat and she gritted her teeth to keep herself from vomiting.

He turned into another room and roughly slapped her down in a chair. Her first instinct was to scramble, but he was already restraining her, tying her wrists to the arms.

"You know how to put up a fight," he growled, taking a step back and examining the deep gash on his arm. "Look what you did, you little bitch."

Riley clenched her jaw, feeling no remorse for the injuries she caused him or any of these people. They were trying to eat them for goodness sake!

"Damn, I think it'll need stitches," he hissed, pressing his fingers against the gash. Blood oozed between his fingers and she couldn't help but feel a little satisfied.

She struggled a little against her restraints as he tried to stop his wound from bleeding, but he'd tied her pretty tight.

"Why am I here and not with the others?" she spat, eyes narrowing as she glared at him.

"You're causing too much trouble. You nearly let the rest of the cattle out."

Cattle? Was that what they were calling them? It must've made them feel better about the fact that they were _eating_ people.

"Where did they take the others?"

"I think you've figure that out by now..."

He gave her a dark look and she squeezed her eyes shut. How were they going to get out of this? Was this the end?

"And why didn't you just take me to be slaughtered with the others?"

Leaning against the wall, he looked down at the ground. "You see, the kids are too lean. Not enough meat. Gotta fatten em up and let em grow before they're any good."

"You're sick."

"Say what you like, princess, but at least we aren't starving."

"I'd rather die before I ate another human being," she hissed.

"I don't think you have ever been really starving," his voice dropped lower and he pushed off the wall to move toward her. "You've never been so hungry that it _hurts to breathe._ You've _never_ felt like you were being _stabbed_ in the_ stomach_ every _second of the day._ You've never _wanted death_ to get rid of the _agony_ that you feel because of your _hunger! You don't know what it's like!_"

Her eyes widened and she pressed herself to the back of the chair as he shouted in her face. He was desperate and desperate people were dangerous. Her body started to shake and she swallowed thickly, not breaking eye contact as he glared at her with such fury and emotion that she felt like she was going to spontaneously combust.

After a long moment of suffocating tension, he pulled away and turned his back to her. "You and your boyfriend might not be worth the waiting with all that trouble you caused. I think we should kill you now."

Boyfriend?

"What?" she muttered.

He turned, narrowing his eyes. "Your boyfriend. Kid with the hat."

What trouble did Carl even cause? Did they take him too? Her mind spun so hard with questions that she became light headed.

"What are you talking about?" she ground out, rolling her neck.

"Both of you tried stabbing everyone you could. Calling for you. Almost killed a guy. I'm guessing you missed that." He gave her a wicked grin.

She wriggled in her restraints.

"What did you do to him?!" she snarled.

This only caused his grin to widen.

"You let him go!"

Blood started to trickle down her wrists from the rope rubbing against her skin as she fought.

"You're not really in the position to be making demands, missy," he chuckled darkly.

And then, the whole world suddenly shook. Dust and small pieces of the ceiling fell from above, but luckily her chair didn't fall over. Her captor, however, wasn't so lucky. He toppled to the ground hard and it only took a minute for the cogs in her brain to realize that she needed to use this to her advantage. If the building was suddenly exploding and he was the only thing standing in her way to get out, she needed to take him out. And find Carl and the others.

Riley stood, lifting the chair with her, and ran straight for the guy as he stood. She spun, ramming the chair into him and pushing him to the ground. The chair rolled over and she grunted, squirming and getting back to her feet. With all haste, she rammed the chair into the wall causing it to crack. Not enough. Another ram, another crack. On her third ram, the chair splintered. He was finally on his feet and headed toward her, causing her to fall on her back. She kicked out with her feet, keeping him at bay just long enough to free her wrists from the rope and broken arms of the chair. His hands jumped to her throat and she suddenly had no air.

"Gareth will be glad I killed you," he growled, tightening his grip.

Her lungs throbbed painfully as she squirmed to try and get free. With all her strength, she tried to pry his hands from her throat, but he was too strong. Reaching to the side, she grabbed a piece of the chair and swung it to his head as hard as she could in hopes of getting free. And it worked.

He reeled backwards, grabbing his head and letting go of her throat. She coughed violently, pushing herself out from underneath him and getting to her feet. Before he had a chance to get up, she blindly swung in his direction, knowing she hit some part of him because of his pained grunt. She swung again, breathing unevenly and blinking to restore her vision.

Her body shook with rage and fear as she swung again and again, hard whacks turning into loud squishes until she couldn't swing anymore. The piece of chair slipped from her fingertips and she stared in horror and disgust at what was left of her captor. The hard floor tinted red with blood and brain matter and a face so unrecognizable that she felt like she was going to be sick.

She backed against the wall, sliding down to the floor and bringing her knees to her chest. She had killed a man. A person, not a walker. Not someone who was bit. A living, breathing person. But he was going to hurt her. She had no other choice...right? The furthest she had gone was maiming...

It had always been walkers. Or people bitten to kill out of mercy. Never a person.

Shaking, Riley buried her face in her knees, taking in painful, uneven breaths as she tried to wrap her mind around what just happened. She didn't shed a tear - not for someone like that - but she was definitely feeling the shock and discomfort of her own skin. She knew that killing would come eventually, but not like this. Not when she was already feeling vulnerable from the night before and from being trapped.

Some loud shouts awoke her from her trance and she glanced toward the door. Carl. He was still out there with the rest of them.

With a shaky breath, she shifted her focus to him. Finding him. Finding the others. Getting out of here. Slowly, she crawled over to the corpse of the man, fishing in his pockets for the one gun he had on him. Loaded.

Not looking at his face - or lack thereof - she headed to the door, legs feeling extremely weak and unsteady. Opening the door, she pushed herself forward, keeping herself aware of her surroundings as best as she could. Screams mixed with growls. Walkers were getting in. Her feet picked up the pace and she turned the corner, coming face to face with one of the terminus members.

Her finger jumped to the trigger without a thought.

She winced as the body dropped to the ground, but kept going until she ran into the largest herd of walkers she had ever seen. What seemed like hundreds were pouring into the room and their sights were set on her.

Immediately, she skidded to a stop and turned right around, heart slapping against her ribs as she sprinted back the way she came. Once she was in the hallway, she started down a different way, trying to remember the way she was brought so that she could try and find Carl and the others. Eventually, she came upon a room that had something too familiar in it.

Right in the corner behind a toppled chair and table sat a sheriff's hat. Carl's hat.

Riley picked it up, clenching it tightly in her hands. He had to be nearby. He had to be with his dad...

No way was she losing anyone else.

_Dammit, Riley. You weren't supposed to get close. Not with anyone ever again..._ Mentally cursing herself, she tucked the hat under her arm and headed out again. At the end of the hall was an ominous door slightly ajar. She moved toward it with caution. Stopping to take a listen, she noted that it was silent. Could either be good or bad. She placed a shaky hand on the door and pressed it open.

An awful smell hit her nose and she reeled back, spluttering as her eyes watered up. She recovered and ventured forward, noting a few human corpses dangling from the ceiling with most of the meat stripped away and whatever was left rotting and dripping bacteria. Holding back a gag, she weaved in between the bodies, coming to a larger part of the room where some sort of tank sat with two bodies keeled over the edge.

Blood pooled in the bottom of the tank and she quickly lifted up each body to see if it was someone she knew. One was a blonde man and the other was a man with darker hair. Neither of them she recognized and each of them had horrible slits in their throats. She grimaced and moved away, glancing around and noticing that there were cut bindings littered on the floor. They must've made it out. Or someone had.

Turning away from the gory scene, she noticed a door on the other side of the room. With quiet footsteps, she padded over, pressing lightly against the door. Sunlight poured into the crack and she blinked away the blinding light. The sound of crackling fire reached her ears and a glance to her left revealed that the building was ablaze - and so were the walkers. A few noticed her and she ran to cover, ducking down and trying to think of a plan. Her heartbeat almost grew louder than the outside noises, which muddled her thoughts.

The only thing she could think to do was run. Run as far away from this place as she could. The fire would consume the building soon and there was no way of knowing if the others were still inside. They had to have gotten away. If they broke free, there was no way they were still inside. They were smarter than that. They knew how to survive.

It was all she could do. Hope that they had somehow gotten out and that she could find them in the woods somehow. When the fire stretched into her vision, she knew it was time to go.

Getting to her feet, she shot a fiery walker in her path before darting toward the fence. The first thing she did was toss Carl's hat over and then she climbed. She was able to get over before anything grabbed her and she landed on her back in the dirt with a grunt. Grabbing the hat, she scurried forward, putting as much distance between her and the place as possible. After a few minutes of running, she stopped to lean against a tree and catch her breath. She pressed the hat close to her chest and let her forehead rest against the bark.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she brought in a shuddering breath. It was her fault. If she hadn't gotten close...she wouldn't be feeling this hurt. The hurt of not knowing what happened to them. The hurt of thinking they could be dead. The hurt of not being able to see them again.

All she wanted to do was rest - collapse to the ground and let all of her emotions out. She was alone. She could do that without anyone seeing her.

But then she heard it. A voice.

Straining her ears, she listened.

"We can't leave! She's back there, we have to find her!"

His voice. It was his voice.

"We can't go back. The whole place is gone, Carl..."

And Rick's voice.

"I'm not leaving her!"

Riley's lips split into a small smile. They were alive.

Without waiting, she took off running as fast as she could in the direction of the voices. Her heart swelled when she saw the group huddled together, Carl and Rick arguing with each other. She stopped, looking between the father and son.

"Carl," she murmured, barely loud enough to be heard. But he heard it.

His head whipped in her direction and he stared at her for a moment, seemingly in disbelief. And then he was running toward her. She dropped the hat, preparing for his weight as he barreled her into a hug. Slowly, she wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her face into his shoulder and taking in a shaky breath, laughing softly. He was warm and comforting and she allowed herself to relax for just a brief moment.

"I thought you were gone," he muttered, still not letting go of her.

"I thought you were too," she hummed.


	15. Struggling

**Chapter 15: Struggling**

Now that everyone was back together, they all headed out through the woods. Riley was introduced to each of them beforehand. She was still a bit wary about them, mainly because she didn't know any of them very well besides Rick and Michonne, but Carl trusted them so she would try to trust them too.

One thing that really surprised her was the fact that his baby sister was still alive. Somehow, she had made it through and the happiness he showed on his face had to be the most joyful she had seen him. The only times she saw him truly happy occurred when they escaped the school alive and when they romped around in the mud. Every other moment with him had been serious.

His joy turned the gears in her head, making her think about the deaths of the two men on her hands. It was something she couldn't stop thinking about. If she could kill two people, how many more could she? Did it make her a monster? Sure they were bad men, but...

These thoughts continued to tumble through her mind as they traipsed through the woods, sun beating down on them every second. She tried to distract herself with studying each of the others and trying to get a read on them, but it didn't do much good. Some of them, such as Daryl, were so stoic they were hard to read. The couples stood out a little bit more, simply because they were being very affectionate and teasing with each other. The rest stood somewhere in between.

After what seemed like hours, they settled down for a break. Food ran low, so Daryl decided to venture out a bit further and see if he could find anything. Others stood watch and Carl sat on a nearby rock feeding Judith. She watched the way he tilted the bottle up and how he held her and the way his lips tugged into a small smile as he watched her.

He noticed her not too long after she started watching him and his smile grew. "You wanna feed her?"

Her eyes went wide. "What ah...I didn't have siblings so I don't-"

"I'll show you."

Within a few strides, he came to her side and settled down next to her, placing Judith in her lap. Riley lifted her hands, completely unsure of what to do as she looked down at the baby now in her lap.

"Here, put your hand here," he chuckled, guiding her left hand to her back to hold her upright. "And hold the bottle up and she'll do the rest."

A little bit of hesitation later, she was able to hold the bottle in the perfect position for Judith to suckle away at the formula. How could something so tiny and innocent be untouched by this world? She felt like she would break her if she did something wrong.

"See? Not that hard," he said with a small smile, sitting down next to her, shoulder to shoulder.

He was right. It wasn't that hard. She was just afraid of doing something to hurt her. But seeing something so strong and thriving yet innocent at the same time made her think that maybe she could be that way too. Keep her humanity somehow and stay like a baby. Like Judith.

Rick called for everyone to get up so they could get moving again, so she handed Carl's sister to Tyreese, who carried her in his backpack. Everyone formed a little line again and they headed off into the woods, running into Daryl before they got too far. He had a rope full of squirrels, which would be good for dinner. At least they would have something to eat and not go a night with their stomachs empty.

The day stretched on, minutes advancing like hours. Surprisingly, they didn't run into any of the dead, but any of them within miles of Terminus was probably back there after all the noise of the fire and explosions. It was only when the light began to fade did they find a safe spot to settle down. The squirrels were meaty enough that they all got enough to at least take the edge off.

Rick and a few others kept watch. Carl fell asleep soon after eating and everyone else had split off into smaller groups to talk. Only one couple lingered nearby. Glenn and Maggie sat across the low-burning fire from her. No one said much until she completely zoned out on the fire as she looked deep within herself for answers to the thoughts running through her head.

"You okay?" Glenn suddenly asked, causing her to whip her eyes up to meet his.

"Huh?" she answered, as she hadn't completely removed herself from her own head.

"You, are you...alright? You seem distant," he repeated.

Almost robotically, she nodded. "Yeah...fine."

Maggie shifted her head on his shoulder. "If you need to talk, we're always here. It was pretty bad back there. And you're our family now."

Riley's mind began to reel. Family? _Our family..._ She hadn't had a family since her parents died...

After a moment of hesitation, she asked, "have you ever...done something you didn't want to do? Something you knew was wrong but...you had to do it?"

Without missing a beat, he answered, "yeah. All the time."

"Does it get any easier?" she pressed.

He shook his head. "No. But it shouldn't be easy. It means you still have yourself."

Those words stuck with her the rest of the night until she finally dozed off against the hard ground. Her sleep was disjointed and uncomfortable, but she got a few good chunks of sleep to make her feel refreshed in the morning. The dreams that clouded her mind filled with gory images of the bodies she'd killed, which made her wake up with a jolt. By that time, it was light enough that sleep evaded her, so she got up for the day. The morning went by quickly and everyone was up and ready to go by the time the sun came up.

All of them fell into line again and started through the woods. They didn't get very far before loud cries of help reached their ears.

"Help! Please someone help!"

Carl sprang to action, looking to his dad and pleading for them to go and help. It was a wonder he wanted to help anyone after what happened at Terminus, but she remembered that the last time they didn't help someone, they got into some big trouble. Maybe it was a better idea to see what was happening.

Rick agreed with a nod and they all took off toward the cries. As they neared, she spotted several walkers around a large boulder with a man sitting on top and crying out. None of them hesitated to kill them off. She took a shot at the one nearest to her and it crumpled to the ground. When they were all dead, Rick approached the rock.

"Come on down," he told the man.

Clearly shaken, he slowly slid down, blinking in fear.

"You okay?" Rick asked.

The man held up his finger and then promptly vomited off to the side. Riley's lips curled in disgust and she looked away, shifting her weight and catching Carl's eye.

"S-sorry," he muttered, straightening up and bringing their attention back to him. "Thank you... I'm Gabriel."

Their leader didn't hesitate to get straight to the point. "Do you have any weapons on you?"

"Does it look like I have any on me?" Gabriel queried, glancing down at himself.

Abraham said something that she didn't even know what it meant, but she had a feeling it was an insult.

"I have no weapons of any kind... The Word of God is the only protection I need."

"Sure didn't look like it," Daryl muttered.

"I called for help...Help came."

Everything got quiet for a second.

"Do you have any food? Everything I had left just hit the ground..."

Carl decided to venture forth with a few nuts in his hand to offer. "Got some pecans."

Gabriel took them gratefully and thanked him. His gaze drew to the back of the group where Judith and Tyreese stood. "That's a beautiful child...Do you have a camp?"

"No," Rick answered, "do you?"

"I have a church."

Rick seemed done with the conversation, finally deciding to search the man instead of waiting for the conversation to awkwardly continue. He asked the same three questions she had been asked when they first met and surprisingly Gabriel hadn't killed anyone or anything. Everyone seemed unsure about him, but in the end, they decided to go back to his church for shelter.

Carl took hold of Judith for Tyreese and they headed down the path that Gabriel led for them. There was a bit of talking up ahead, but she only payed attention to the boy beside her.

"What do you think of him?" she asked, not sure if she trusted him. Mainly because she didn't trust strangers very well.

"I dunno. Seems a bit hard to believe he hasn't killed any walkers," he responded, glancing her way.

"Yeah, I know... He seems friendlier than most of the people we've met... I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing..."

"Not everyone's bad. We're not. There has to be other good people too."

She'd like to believe that, but it was hard when everyone they met had tried to kill them or hurt them in some way.

They reached the church, which still stood beautifully among the overgrowing foliage. When they approached, Rick halted everyone and told Gabriel he wanted to look around inside before they were led in. The main five went inside with guns ready while she and the rest stayed outside. It seemed like ages before they emerged again and said that it was clear. The priest tried to crack a joke about how no one could be inside, but it didn't fly over very well.

Carl decided to roll with it anyway. "Thanks for this."

She sent a nod toward him as he headed inside and the others decided to start talking about what they needed. Abraham wanted to take the bus that was in the back and continue moving, but everyone else wanted to get supplies first and take a breath. If she were being honest, a breath sounded nice. The past few days had been crazy and even one night without having to sleep with an eye open would help.

She followed the others inside the church, taking a glance around. It seemed perfectly untouched. Whether that turned out to be a good or bad thing hadn't been determined yet.

Sitting down on a pew, she took in a deep breath, tuning everything out and closing her eyes. It was a few moments she got to herself before Rick interrupted it.

"Riley, I need to talk to Carl," he said, glancing between the two.

With a swift nod, she pushed herself to her feet and wandered a few pews back, staying within listening distance but far enough to give them privacy. She pretended to be occupied with one of the hymn books, but kept an ear out.

Rick started out with, "I don't trust this guy..."

"Why?" Carl asked.

"Why do you trust him?"

"Everybody can't be bad."

Exactly what he had told her.

"Well...I don't trust this guy. And that's why I'm bringing him with me. But he could have friends. So I need you to stay alert and help Tyreese and Riley protect Judith. Okay?"

She glanced up from the book in time to see his son nod in agreement.

"Now I need you to listen to what I have to say," Rick continued, tone more serious. "You are not safe. No matter how many people are around or how clear the area looks. No matter what anyone says, no matter what you think...you are not safe. It only takes one second. One second and it's over. Never let your guard down. Ever. I want you to promise me."

Without a beat, Carl answered, "I promise."

Rick stood, catching her eye and she quickly looked away, back down at the hymn book.

"Dad... You're right. I am strong. We both are. But we're strong enough that we can still help people. We helped Riley... And we can handle ourselves if things go wrong. And we're strong enough that we don't have to be afraid. And we don't have to hide."

If only she could truly believe that.

As she put the book down, his father passed and left the building. Carl shuffled over to her, taking his hat off, brushing his sweaty hair back, and then putting the hat back on.

"You wanna help me look around the place? May not be as safe as it seems," he muttered.

"Sure. We should tell Tyreese we're going out though," she suggested.

"Alright. You wait here."

He disappeared into the office and then reappeared a few minutes later.

"Come on."

Riley started toward the doors, stepping outside into the light. She squinted, spotting Abraham working on the bus off to the left.

"I wished for once there would be clouds," she huffed, putting a hand up to block some of the sun from coming in their eyes as they started to the side of the building to look around.

"If I find sunglasses, I'll make sure you get them," he joked. "Or you could always get something like this."

He scooped the sheriff's hat off his head and plopped it onto hers. It was a bit big on her and fell down to the top of her eyes, but it did effectively block out the sun. She snorted.

"Yeah and now I won't be able to see anything."

"I didn't say it would fit, just said it would block the sun."

Rolling her eyes, she pushed the hat up a bit further so she could see better. "Do I look like I could be a sheriff?"

She leaned back against the wall of the church, raising her eyebrows and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Well...not really. You're too tiny," he teased, reaching over and snatching the hat back.

Her mouth formed an "o" and she jumped over to try and take the hat back, but he held it up out of her reach. "Hey, give that back, I'm the sheriff of this town."

His lips formed a smug smirk and he took a few steps back, waving it above his head. "No can do."

Riley's jaw set in determination and she leaped up, fingers skimming the hat just slightly out of her reach. However, she completely miscalculated her jump and ended up ramming right into his chest. He didn't expect her to stumble into him, so he lost his balance and dragged her down in an attempt to keep himself upright. She landed on top of him, the hat tumbling out of his hands a few feet away.

Blinking, she looked down at him, propping herself up so he could breathe. "Oops, sorry I didn't mean to knock you over... Or maybe I did."

Her lips curled into a mischievous smirk, but he didn't say anything, his large blue eyes locked on her face.

"Carl...?" She waved a hand in front of his face. "Earth to Carl."

His breath suddenly hitched and he sat up a little, prompting her to get up as well.

"Sorry, just...," he trailed, scooting away and grabbing the hat. "Here, you can wear it for the day. Looks better on you anyway."

He placed it on her head and dusted himself off, turning awkwardly to look at the siding on the church. What just happened?

"Okay... Let's keep looking around," she said with a shrug, pushing the rim of the hat upwards.

"Good idea," he agreed.

The two of them started to poke around, trying to find anything out of place or something that might be dangerous. The strangest thing they found were words carved into the wood. Someone had been mad at Gabriel, that much was obvious.

"Hey look at this," he said suddenly, pointing to deep marks on the wood of the window.

She moved forward to study it, tilting her head to the side.

Rick suddenly appeared, heading over to the two. "Hey. Tyreese said you were out back. Come on in. We found food. A lot of it."

Turning slightly, she looked up at him to notice he was eyeing the hat on her head in a strange manner.

"Good," Carl said absently, hands on his hips.

"What is it?" his father asked, moving forward to look at what his son was looking at.

Riley reached over to point at the deep marks on the window frame.

"Those scratches, they're deep. Like knives or something. Someone was trying to get in. We found something else, too. And I don't know what happened, but whatever it is, we can handle it. Doesn't mean Gabriel's a bad guy for sure, but...it means something."

They headed around the corner to where the words they found sat etched into the wall. "You'll burn for this", to be exact. Rick didn't say much of anything and simply stared at the words, running his thumb over them.

"Let's go inside...get some food ready," he said after a moment, motioning for the two to follow.

She shared a glance with Carl before the two of them followed. The bins of food sitting on one of the pews made her mouth water and she eyed some of the cans in there. Beans, vegetables, some canned fruits, even pudding... In terms of cooking, there wasn't much to do beside heat everything up which was left to the others, so she hung back until it was finally time to eat.

It had grown considerably darker and candles now littered the room. The bowls full of food sat at the front and everyone got in line with paper plates and plastic utensils to eat. She filled up her plate with enough to keep her full and then started to sit down when Abraham started with a toast.

Sitting down on the floor, she started to eat, nodding to the ginger at his toast since she only had water and everyone else besides Carl had a bit of wine they'd found. However, Abraham wasn't done when the toast was over. He started to talk - talk about how Eugene could save the world and they'd be done with this road trip.

"Eugene, what's in DC?" he turned his conversation toward the man with the mullet.

"Infrastructure constructed to withstand pandemics even of this foobar magnitude," the man answered.

What?

"That means food, fuel, refuge...restart."

_Thanks for clarifying..._

She stopped eating, pursing her lips as Abraham continued with the point of saving everyone. Saving themselves. How was any of this guaranteed? Because Eugene supposedly knew how to end this thing? But to her surprise, Rick agreed. And then everyone else followed suit. She wasn't going to leave them, so she'd have to go too.

Everyone seemed pretty happy as they continued to eat and although she wasn't upset, she was unsure. Things in her life changed so rapidly over the last few days that she didn't even get time to think. She would have much rather stayed here a few days and then have Abraham bring this up than now. But she would have to go with the hand she was dealt. She could always leave and go on her own way, but now that she had someone to trust, she couldn't. This was exactly what she didn't want to happen and yet it had.

Maybe it was time to put her trust in the others too.


End file.
